


Waking Up Sober

by fauxstyles, ineffablystyles



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fake Relationship, Non-Famous, Uni AU, University Student Harry Styles, University Student Louis, University Student Niall, University Student Zayn, non-canon, one direction - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-04-19 15:18:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14240109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxstyles/pseuds/fauxstyles, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineffablystyles/pseuds/ineffablystyles
Summary: Savannah Harper, 22.Self assured psych student.She’s nonchalant, sarcastic, and her biggest achievement to date is being able to down five jagerbombs in less than 30 seconds.-Harry Styles, 23.Overachieving law student.He’s never faced a problem that couldn’t be fixed with a little help from his Russian friend - vodka.-a story of late nights, unorthodox household plants, and a trip to vegas that changes everythingUNI AU





	1. the beginning

“Ok will you please stay still? I need to bloody think,” Harry groaned, staring down at the paper clasped between his fingers as if they held the answer.

“What do you even need to think about? It’s pretty obvious what’s written on the paper there,” Savannah rolled her eyes shifting in her seat. “And I’m sorry if I can’t sit still. I need to use the loo but  _someone_  won’t let me out.”

“I’m thinking about the legal matters of it all. I need to call a lawyer,” he muttered, completely disregarding Savannah’s bladder issues.  

“How are you going to call a lawyer if you’re 35,000 feet up in the air, Harry?” she deadpanned.

“Thanks for pointing that out, by the way. Thanks so much for that,” the sarcasm rolled quick and swift off Harry’s tongue. Apparently he became rather sarcastic in moments of hysteria.  

Savannah laughed. “Come here, you should take the window seat. Maybe it’ll calm you down,” she teased.

“One, I’m not completely daft. I know you’re trying to get me to let you out into the aisle. Two, you’re absolutely not funny and three, will you  _please_  stop mucking about, this is a serious matter,” Harry implored, even as the stiffness in his shoulders melted away slightly as he turned to glance at her.

“You know, I can’t be serious about something that’s been signed by Elvis. I mean look at that, he swirled the ‘E’ and everything,” she leaned over Harry’s shoulder and snorted at the signature. “Not even the Queen’s that fancy.”

“I’m somewhat sure that’s not true, Sav,” Harry commented, momentarily distracted. “I reckon the Queen would have more class than Elvis.”

“Ok, but Elvis is the King of Rock n Roll,” she pointed out matter of factly.

“And she’s the bloody Queen of England. Also, she’s still  _alive_.” 

“Semantics,” Savannah waved him off.

“I’m so done with you,” he shook his head, frustration seeping from every pore on his body. “Like, I’m actually done with you.”

“Don’t be so rude, Harry. You’re ruining this entire trip,” Savannah stated, giving him a disapproving glare. “Now budge up so I can use the loo.”

“My dad’s going to kill me,” Harry whined, turning to once again stare at the damning piece of paper clutched between his fingers and once again ignoring Savannah.

“Bloody hell,” she sighed. “It’s probably not even legally binding. Just calm down and wait until we land before having a breakdown. Enjoy the rest of your trip.”

“Savannah, I don’t think you understand the fact that this is a  _legal_  document which means this will be on my file forever,” Harry tried to explain. “My dad is actually going to  _murder_  me. I can see the lecture already coming -  _what will people think, Harry. You’re going to be a lawyer. Our reputation is on the line_ ,” he mimicked in what Savannah thought was meant to be an impression of his dad.

“Just don’t tell him,” she shrugged. “You’re acting like you’ve committed a felony. Relax, Styles, it’s not like you’re going to jail for this.”

“ _That’s not the point!_ ” he exclaimed, scrunching up the already crumbled piece of paper between his fingers, even more.

“That’s not the point,” Savannah mocked, in a startlingly accurate Harry impersonation.

“You’re impossible.”

“Yeah, and I’m not going to stop bothering you until you let me out,” she crossed her arms smugly.

Harry sighed in defeat, his shoulder slumping with exhaustion as he gave up. “Fine, but can you bring me a drink when you come back?” he asked, rubbing the side of his head to try and ease the growing headache.

Savannah huffed, unbuckling her seatbelt and standing up. “First, you keep me captive and now you’re demanding things. I see where this is going.”

“Sod off,” Harry scoffed defensively.

“With pleasure,” she smiled sweetly, pushing her way past Harry. She slipped her right hand into the pouch of the seat in front of him as she passed, carefully pulling out his small vial of sleeping pills and slipping them into her pocket. “Be right back.”

Harry snorted, once again turning back to his newfound obsession with the document before him. Savannah scoffed as she walked away.

It didn’t take her long to return, a cup of water clamped tightly between her fingers. “Here you go, you wanker,” she shoved the cup towards him as she pushed her way back to her seat.

“No need to be so bloody rude about it,” Harry glared at her, moving his gangly legs back to allow her room to pass by.

Savannah didn’t reply, opting to simply glance at him from the corner of her eye as he chugged down his drink.

He frowned a little once he was done, staring at the plastic cup strangely.

“Everything alright?” she asked him casually, picking at her fingernails.

“Water tasted a little strange,” he mused.

“Oh, yeah,” Sav said, as if she’d just remembered to warn him. “I forgot to tell you, I slipped in a couple of your pills,” she shrugged.

“You did what?” Harry hissed, his eyes widening in disbelief.

“You were going to give yourself premature greys,” she defended herself. “And I couldn’t in good conscience sit by and not do anything about it.”

“You drugged me,” Harry said, sounding thoroughly stunned. “You actually drugged me,” he repeated.

“It was for the greater good,” she explained, before muttering under her breath, “I can’t believe they’re taking so long to work.”

“And I can’t believe you drugged me,” he said once again, apparently having heard her.

“You’ll thank me when the flight’s over,” she said confidently, seeming entirely unfazed by the glare Harry was shooting at her.

“The only thing I’m going to be thanking you with, is a law suit,” he hissed, but Savannah was able to note the faint slurring of his words and perked up slightly.

“You wouldn’t do that to me,” she pat his hand gently where it was resting between them.

“I hate you,” Harry said in defeat, his eyes beginning to droop as sleep fought to overtake him. “How many bloody drugs did you give me?”

“Uh, like three?” Savannah posed it as a question. “It said take a maximum of three.”

“Once I’m conscious enough again,” Harry murmured, eyes closing. “We’re going to have a very serious conversation about this.”

“Just go to sleep, Harry. God knows you need it,” Savannah sighed, using the airplane supplied blankets to cover him.

“I can’t believe this is happening to me,” he sighed, and not for the first time Savannah felt a sympathetic tugging on her heart as sleep overtook him and she was left to her own thoughts.

“Yeah,” Savannah agreed with a sigh, letting all pretenses of perkiness drop as she stared at him with worry instead. “Me neither.”

-

***four months ago***

Savannah Harper liked to consider herself independent enough that she didn’t need a man in her life to keep her happy. And a year and a half ago, she was convinced that no man in the whole of England could ever change that, could ever make her lose control of herself enough to let someone in. She didn’t think that she’d ever fall for anyone enough that she’d make them such a significant part of her life - significant enough that she’d move in with them and consider her chances at a happily ever after.

Savannah hadn’t  _wanted_  a boyfriend, she hadn’t wanted to fall in love. And it had all been going well for her, too, until one day it wasn’t and she found herself falling for a boy.

And, unsurprisingly to her, it didn’t end very well.

A sudden turn of events had left her just out of an eighteen-month-long relationship with some guy from her psych lecture, and with the one thing that she didn’t think would ever happen to her - a broken heart. However, Savannah being Savannah meant she had been intent on keeping her life as normal as she possibly could, despite what had happened. She was fine, she told herself constantly - the phrase alone becoming a mantra of sorts. But being fine came with a price - and in her case it had been her two overly worried best friends waiting for her to have a breakdown.

“You’re going to have to talk about it at some point, Sav,” Alexa said softly, trying not to startle her. “It’s not good to keep things bottled up.”

“You should know that better than any of us,” Reyna added, sidling up to Alexa. “Being the future psychologist and all.”

Savannah glared at them, shrugging Alexa’s arm off her shoulder and moving away from the kitchen counter with her cup of tea clasped firmly in her hands. “I’m  _fine_ ,” she insisted, and she really believed she was.

“No you’re bloody well not,” Reyna crossed her arms across her chest, staring Savannah down. “It’s been, what, three weeks?” she asked rhetorically. “And you’re sitting around in Lex’s flat acting fine while drinking your damn tea and eating two minute noodles straight from the box for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This isn’t healthy!”

“Rey,” Lex warned. “Go easy on her.”

“No,” Reyna glared. “She needs to hear this.”

“What do you expect me to do?!” Savannah exploded, spinning around to face her friends. “He’s been screwing around with other girls, I’m not going to be upset over someone who clearly doesn’t care about me! I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me have a breakdown.”

Reyna’s expression softened. “We’re not him, Sav,” she said quietly.

“You don’t have to pretend to be fine with us,” Alexa added. “You know that.”

“I know,” Sav’s shoulder’s slumped with exhaustion. “I know. But I really  _am_  fine. If I wasn’t I’d tell you guys,” she promised. “But I really do feel fine right now, and I don’t want to burden you guys with something so unimportant. Rey, you never even  _liked_  Cam. And you warned me against him,” she looked at Alexa. “I just didn’t listen.”

“Bloody hell, you muppet,” Reyna rolled her eyes, crossing the room to engulf her in a hug, Alexa following suit. “You won’t be burdening us. It’s our job to shit talk exes with you.”

“We’re your friends, Sav,” Alexa nodded along. “You’re supposed to ignore us and then come to us if things go wrong. It’s called  _friendship_.”

“Would you like me to spell it out for you?” Reyna joked. “F-R-I-E-N-”

She was interrupted as Savannah shoved her away. “Twat,” she laughed, shaking her head.

“There we are! There’s that smile,” Alexa cooed at her, pinching her cheeks the way you would to a toddler.

“I hate you guys.”

Reyna snorted. “No, you don’t.”

“You don’t even come close to hating us,” Alexa agreed. Savannah pursed her lips, trying to fight off another smile and ultimately failing.  

“I know what we could do,” she said, a thought popping into her head. “To convince you guys that I really am fine.”

“What?” Reyna asked warily, suddenly nervous of what Savannah had conjured in her mind.

“There’s a new club opening up in Mayfair tonight and I got on the guest list. Think it would clear my mind if we went,” she said innocently enough that her friends would have no choice but to agree.

Reyna and Alexa exchanged looks, they still weren’t convinced she was fine and were worried about what she’d do if she were to get drunk in a public place after bottling everything up for three entire weeks. At home, they could monitor how much alcohol Savannah consumed - but at a club, there was no way to tell how much she drank, or what she would do.

“First off,” Reyna began. “How the heck did you end up on the guest list? And secondly, are you sure that’s a good-?” she tried to continue, only to get elbowed in the stomach by Alexa.

“Ignore Reyna. I think it sounds like a great idea,” Lex grinned, ignoring her friend’s glare. It was worth it, however, to see Savannah grin back at them, an excited gleam in her eyes.

-

When they arrived, the club was dank and the music too loud. The dance floor was a sweaty cocoon of hundreds of people all moving to the DJ’s beat, unknowingly heightening the already suffocating atmosphere. And yet despite all this, Savannah Harper found that she was having the time of her life.

In fact, with each shot of alcohol that made its way down her throat and the warmth of several people grinding up against her, thoughts about Cameron and his infidelity began to seep from her mind — which was exactly what she wanted. All she could focus on was the heavy beat of the music and the slight burn of alcohol on the back of her throat.

Savannah thought this was probably the best idea she’d had in years, and wished her friends would join her. They had no idea what they were missing. But Reyna and Alexa simply watched on worriedly as their friend drunkenly swayed to the music as yet another body joined her - handing her another drink.

“I’m getting another drink!” Reyna called over the loud music, catching Alexa’s eye and waving her empty glass.

“I’ll stay here and watch Sav,” she yelled back giving Reyna the ok to leave for the bar. “Shit,” she muttered glancing back out at the crowd, which had become rather Savannah-less. “I take my eyes off you for two minutes,” Alexa muttered, heading in the direction of the pulsing dance floor.

But Savannah was nowhere to be seen. She’d disappeared into the crowd, essentially leaving everything behind her. All her worries had flown through the window the moment she had downed her eighth drink, and suddenly nothing seemed all that important - except maybe finding some more alcohol. Everything had started to blur together, and she could feel herself swaying to the beat as it vibrated through her every nerve. She felt like she was floating.

Everything in her mind was blank, so when random hands found their place on her hips, she didn’t even think twice about it. She didn’t really think twice about anything that happened after, really. She forgot all about the past few weeks, and about her friends who were searching the club frantically for her as she gripped the tall stranger’s hand and left the club with him.

For one night, she decided to forget who she was, and that’s exactly what she did. She snuffed out any lingering doubts floating in her mind by taking one final shot, before she stumbled out of the club and into the back of an Uber with the equally intoxicated stranger.

-

When Savannah woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and in a bed that was not her own, she just knew that she was going to be in trouble. She had no clue where she was, how she had gotten there, nor how she was going to get home. She didn’t even know where her phone was.

“Shit,” she muttered bringing her hand up to her face and rubbing the lingering sleep from her eyes. “Shit,” she repeated noting the outline under the sheets of a naked guy beside her. A guy whose name she couldn’t remember even if her life depended on it. “Shit,” she cursed again.

“Shut up,” grumbled the voice beside her and Savannah froze realising she’d woken him up. She held her breath, waiting for him to put the pieces together.

Lying there, she counted the seconds in her head—which wasn’t all that hard to do seeing as her head was pounding along to them.  Her eyes took on the shape of saucers as the guy began to move, shamelessly staring as the muscles in his back rippled. She averted her eyes when she realised that he had turned around to face her.

“Shit,” he echoed Savannah’s exclamations as he slowly sat up, careful to keep the white bed sheet covering his privates. The two stared at one another in awkward silence, both waiting for the other to be the first to instigate the much-needed, albeit extremely awkward, conversation they were undoubtedly going to have.

“I don’t remember your name,” Savannah broke the silence rather bluntly. The awkward atmosphere was making her skin crawl and all she wanted to do was to get out of there. “Sorry,” she apologised afterwards, knowing her words had sounded standoffish and that her tone was rather rude. “I was planning to leave earlier, I just don’t remember… much.”

“It’s Harry,” he grinned at her, trying to hold back a chuckle. “And it’s ok, seeing as I can’t seem to remember your name either. Sally or something right?”

“Savannah.”

“Right! Savannah,” Harry clicked his finger repeating her name. “Well, Savannah, seeing as you’re still here, do you think you could fill me in on what happened last night?”

She wasn’t sure if his question took on an accusatory tone, almost as if he was blaming her, or if she was imagining things. Regardless, this caused Savannah to raise her eyebrows, as if daring him continue with that train of thought.

“I was hoping you could tell me the same thing,” she said, carefully crossing her arms across her chest and making sure to keep her half of the bed sheet covering her decency. She didn’t want this Harry person to get anymore eyefuls of her body than he’d probably already seen last night.

“I’m assuming we shagged,” Harry shrugged like it was a natural occurrence—which, from the sight of him, probably was. God, what if he had an STI?

“From our state of dress—”

“More like undress,” Harry muttered, cutting her off. “And god, can you get any more formal,” he commented - Savannah chose to ignore him.

“From our state of dress, and the fact that this room smells like sex and cheap cologne, I’d say that’s a solid assumption,” she rolled her eyes, letting sarcasm seep into her last few words.

“Hey!” he exclaimed indignantly. “Whose cologne are you calling cheap?”

“Yours, obviously,” she tried to raise a brow and from the amused quirk to Harry’s lips she knew she’d failed.

“Whatever,” he sighed, flopping onto his back and rubbing at his eyes. “I can’t remember anything and I don’t think you can either, so I’m going to have a shower and you’re going to leave,” Harry said, grabbing what seemed to be a pair of boxers off the floor and pulling them up his legs, keeping his back to Savannah.

It wasn’t exactly an unwelcome sight, she mused, watching as his body moved to do his brain’s bidding. But she had more pressing matters to address right now.

“You’re right, I don’t remember anything,” Savannah agreed. “Like whether we used a condom or not?” she probed and watching carefully, she was rewarded with the tensing of Harry’s shirtless form.

“Shit,” Harry cursed. “Are you on the pill?” he spun around, panic clearly obvious on his face.

“Yes, but—”

“Thank god,” Harry let out a breath in relief.

“You do realise the pill is only about 92% accurate,” Savannah told him dryly, making him once again freeze up. She hadn’t been sure whether to be thankful that Reyna had told her the nifty pill-fact at the time, but now she was sending her friend a silent thanks. “And anyway, that’s not why I asked. There’s the more pressing matter of whether or not you’re carrying around an STI,” she spoke casually even though she was nervous; more so about Harry’s reaction than his answer.

True to her thoughts, Harry glared at her. “I’m clean.”

“If you say so, mate,” Savannah teased, although from the look of absolute fury on Harry’s face, she thought it was safe to assume he was telling the truth.

“If anyone here has one, it’s probably you,” Harry shot back, standing up from the bed and moving around to stand in front of Savannah, who also jumped up to stand, not liking the way Harry was towering over her. Even at her full height however, she was still a head shorter than him.

“And what the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?” she demanded, glaring up at him as green clashed with green.

“It means that you basically threw yourself at me last night,” Harry smirked, though she could tell his heart wasn’t really in it.

“Oh really? And how could you possibly know that if you don’t remember anything that happened?” she challenged.

Harry shrugged, “Since you can’t remember what happened either, you can’t prove it didn’t happen,” he shot back cheekily.

Savannah stared up at the infuriating boy before her, “You’re disgusting. I can’t believe I had sex with you.”

“I mean, you came back with me - it is my house. What does this say about you?” he grinned, obviously thinking he had won.

“It tells me that I make bad decisions when I’m drunk. Now, if you don’t mind I’d like to get dressed and get out and away from you, wanker.”  

“No need for wanking today,” Harry chuckled to himself as he walked over to an adjoining door that Savannah assumed led to a bathroom.

“Ugh,” she scoffed at him, leaning over to pick up her discarded bra. “I repeat… you’re disgusting.”

“If you say so!” he laughed shutting the door and allowing Savannah the small amount of privacy she needed to slip on her bra. She abandoned the search for her knickers after a couple of minutes - she couldn’t seem to locate them anywhere - but she knew that she couldn’t walk out of this apartment wearing nothing.

Glancing around the room, her eyes zeroed in on the dresser directly opposite the bed and Savannah contemplated making a not-so-wise decision. “Screw it,” she muttered marching over and carefully pulling the first drawer open - coming across nothing particularly useful.

The next few drawers revealed nothing but socks and t-shirts and she felt herself growing frustrated before she finally pulled open a drawer that revealed an entire collection of neatly folded boxers and briefs in every single colour imaginable - “c’mon, who the hell wears mustard boxers?” she grumbled to herself.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she chose a plain black pair with the tags still on and quickly pulled them on - it was either that or go commando - before stealing a quick glance around the bedroom to check if she’d left anything behind. Satisfied with her work, she headed out the door and into a corridor that opened up into a kitchen not quite as pristine as the bedroom had been last night. Huh, Savannah thought, snippets of the night flitting through her mind, bringing with them feelings she’d never quite been privy to before.

Choosing to push those disturbing thoughts aside, Savannah spotted a coffee machine sat innocently on the counter next to the sink. Almost as if she had been struck by a baseball bat, her hangover came back in full force - a dull throbbing pain at the back of her head that threatened to tear its way out of her skull. Walking - or rather -  stumbling over to the front door without any coffee in her system simply seemed like an impossible feat now.

“Sod it,” she muttered pulling the dress she’d only just grabbed off the couch over her head and leaving it hitched around her hips, she made a beeline over to the coffeepot. She decided that even though she risked spending more time in the presence of a one night stand she didn’t fancy being around, a large, steaming cup of coffee would be well worth it in the end.

The noises that came along with the opening and closing of cupboards in search for coffee really weren’t helping Savannah’s headache, and with every crash and clang of pots and pans bumping against one another, she felt her frustration rising and her patience weaning.

“Where the bloody hell is the coffee? Does he drink anything other than tea?” she cursed, ducking her head into one of the lower cupboards in desperation.  

“The coffee’s in the top right cupboard,” came a very entertained voice.

Savannah swore as her already pounding head bumped against the marble counter in her haste to turn around. Rubbing her temples, she looked over to see Harry with only a towel wrapped around his waist and an amused smile on his face as he eyed Savannah’s attire.

“I didn’t peg you as a thief,” he observed, nodding towards her lower body.

“I didn’t peg you as the type to read erotica,” she shot back, eyeing the Sylvia Day book she’d just spotted lying open against a fruit bowl beside her, before reaching up into the top cupboard and grabbing the coffee out.

“Not mine,” he replied, pulling out two mugs from a cupboard beside Savannah as she brewed the two of them some coffee.

“Right…”

“It’s not,” Harry insisted.

“I don’t care,” she retorted.

“It’s my mate’s girlfriend’s,” he explained anyway.

“I really don’t care, Harvey,” Savannah purposefully used the wrong name.

“It’s Harry,” he corrected, and by the tone of his voice, she could tell it had grated on his nerves.

“I still don’t care.”

“Bloody hell, my hangover’s getting worse,” he complained.

“Aw, did Harvey have too much to drink last night?” she cooed at him.

Muttering under his breath, Harry left the kitchen and disappeared from sight as he turned the corner that led to his bedroom.

Despite knowing that it was pointless, Savannah hoped he wouldn’t return until she was out of his flat. Much to her despair, he walked back out moments later - still shirtless, this time wearing a pair of low hanging sweatpants on his hips that just drew all of Savannah’s attention to the deep V-lines leading downwards. She looked away quickly before he got the chance to catch her ogling.  

Just as he entered the kitchen space, the chime on the coffee machine indicated it was ready. So, without wasting a second, Savannah poured herself a cup of the steaming black beverage, instantly taking a massive slurp and burning her tongue in the process. She didn’t mind. Instead she rather welcomed the slight pain on her tongue as it briefly distracted her from the headache that was still hammering around her head.

“Oi, where’s mine?” Harry’s grating voice brought her back down to earth, and when she turned to glance at him, he had a surprisingly adorable pout on his lips. This only seemed to frustrate Savannah.

“It’s your house, pour it for yourself,” she shrugged.

His pout deepening, Harry fixed himself a cup of the coffee.

“Well, I’m done,” Savannah dropped her cup into the already overflowing sink. She glanced down at herself and blushed a little, knowing how much of a mess she probably was.

Pulling down the dress so that it wasn’t hitched so high up around her hips, she turned to Harry and opened her mouth a couple of times before settling on a simple, “goodbye.”.

“Uh, see ya around,” came Harry’s distracted reply, his thoughts occupied as he nursed his mug thoughtfully.

“Probably not,” Savannah quipped, though the words didn’t come out as rudely as she’d intended.


	2. blue hawaii

Savannah trudged up the stairs to her flat, heels in hand with her dress crinkled from where it had lain on the floor all night. It was the ultimate walk of shame and other than the slight headache from her already diminishing hangover, she felt great. Unfortunately for her, that feeling only lasted until she made it to her front door. She knew that Cameron wasn’t going to be there - he hadn’t been home since that night - but she still felt anxious at the possibility. 

Sighing, she pushed her way through and immediately headed for the shower, putting her phone on charge before hopping in. The hot water pounding on her skin was a welcome feeling after the night she’d had and it was until almost an hour later that Savannah finally gathered the strength to turn the water off and step out, feeling somewhat more refreshed and relaxed. That is, until she checked her phone. 

15 Missed Calls  
42 Unread Messages 

And they were all from her two best friends. Savannah was screwed. Biting her lip, she contemplated ignoring her friends and just carrying on with her day like she normally would but she knew that the longer she put it off, the more crap she was going to get from Reyna. And Alexa too. But mostly Reyna. 

She quickly typed out a message to them to let them know that she was fine and not to come over, because Savannah was definitely not in the mood to leave the house. Then she quickly dropped her phone, knowing that it was going to ring as soon as Reyna read the message, and quickly left the room to look for something edible in the kitchen. 

She was in the process of making some toast and boiling an egg when she heard her phone ring. Pausing, Sav gulped back the sudden onslaught of nerves as she dragged her feet back into her room and picked the phone up just before it could go to voicemail. She had barely gotten a hello through before Reyna was cursing her head off, rambling on about how irresponsible Savannah had been for disappearing into thin air and not contacting her friends to let them know that she was alright. She went on about how worried she and Alexa had been and how they’d even contacted Cameron to see if she was there. 

“You called my ex-boyfriend?” Savannah interrupted her mid-sentence, barely able to contain her discomfort at the thought of him. 

“We were desperate!” Reyna yelled. “Do you know how much coffee I’ve had? Because I don’t know how much coffee I’ve had. But it’s a lot. All so I wouldn’t fall asleep so that if you came back I’d be awake.”

“I’m sorry,” Sav sighed, holding her phone between her shoulder and ear as she picked up her breakfast and made her way into the lounge room. “I was drunk,” she tried to explain.

“Yeah, we bloody know you were,” Reyna snorted through the phone, and Sav let out a breath of relief when she could detect some humour behind it. “Are you still at home?” she asked, after a moment’s pause. She could hear some shuffling on the other end of the line and she assumed that Alexa had shown up. 

“Yeah, I just took a shower and now I’m ready to sleep for eternity,” she lied, hoping they’d fall for it. It was a tense couple of seconds when no reply came, though she could hear a whispered conversation taking place on the other end of the line. Finally, Alexa was the one to speak. 

“Alright then. You rest up and call us when you wake,” she said kindly. 

“Yeah, I’m not done yelling!” Reyna’s muffled voice came from the background. 

“When is she ever?” Sav joked, chest feeling lighter with the knowledge that she wasn’t going to be ambushed any time soon. “I’ll talk to you guys later.” 

Savannah sighed, slumping back into her couch and reevaluating her life choices. For a second there, she contemplated leaving everyone behind and moving to Switzerland but the thought of Reyna actually physically hunting her down made her forget the plan - not that it was a very likely plan in the first place. She clicked on the TV to some nondescript children’s show and scarfed down her breakfast, trying to kill some time before her shift at work began. 

By the time 11 o’clock rolled around, she severely regretted her decision not to nap. Walking out the door, she avoided looking into mirrors at all costs, hoping and praying that no one she knew walked into the cafe that afternoon. 

The place was unusually quiet when Savannah finally walked through the door - which was slightly unnerving for half eleven on a Saturday morning. But she figured that it’d get busier really quickly soon, and tried to ignore the twitchy feeling she had in her stomach. Keeping busy meant that she had no time to think about anything, and thinking about nothing (especially after last night) was a great thought. And it was going quite well for her too, for a while. 

The cafe had started to fill up at around noon and she’d consumed enough free coffee (yay to connections!) to help keep her awake until she could get home and sleep for an entire week. Or, at least until she could get out of bed and pack her things to move out and never have to see Cameron’s face again. 

But then at around half two in the afternoon, the place had fallen into a lull, and Savannah was too deeply in her safety bubble to realise - until it was too late - that Reyna and Alexa had walked through the doors. They were both sporting identical looks that suggested they weren’t very impressed with her and it took everything in her not to drop the half empty coffee pot she was holding in her hand (she really couldn’t afford to replace it). 

“I didn’t know you’d already moved out,” Reyna said sarcastically. “Because apparently when you said you were going to take a nap, what you actually meant was you were going to work. Unless this is suddenly your new flat,” she rolled her eyes. 

“We went looking for you,” Alexa explained, crossing her arms across her chest. 

“And can you guess our reactions when we walked into your flat and lo and behold, you were not there?” Reyna glared at her. “You’d think after disappearing on us last night, you’d have known better,” she hissed, stepping closer to Sav.

“Uh,” she stuttered, unsure what to say as her eyes darted around the cafe searching for an escape route. “I didn’t realise you’d come looking for me,” she admitted. 

“It’s like you don’t even know us,” Reyna muttered incredulously, which instantly put Savannah on the defense. 

“Ok, so I was hoping you guys wouldn’t come looking for me,” she huffed. “It’s not my fault you’re both overbearing,” she quipped. Both her friends just shot her even bigger unimpressed looks and Reyna even went as far as to put her hands on her hips to suggest, ‘really, you’re going to go there after the stunt you pulled?’. 

“Uh, should we come back later?” a new voice, Louis, suggested walking through the cafe door. Savannah hadn’t even heard it ding, and when she saw the figure who followed Louis inside, she wished she had. Maybe then she’d have been able to prepare herself better for the current situation - or found an escape, more likely an escape.

Savannah swore loudly before ducking behind the coffee machine at the pretense of grabbing a cloth. Alexa leaned over the counter curiously to see where her friend had gone while Reyna greeted Louis brightly. “Hey, Lou. What are you doing here?” 

“Well, we were walking down the street and saw you lot charging in here so we thought we’d investigate. Maybe get to see a catfight while we’re at it,” he grinned, grabbing a muffin from the basket at the counter and unwrapping it. 

“I hope you’re going to pay for that,” Reyna scolded, dismissing the catfight remark for the time being considering one of her best friends was currently ducked underneath a coffee machine for no apparently reason. 

“I don’t see anyone manning the store, do I? Free muffins for everyone!” he replied, smirking in the direction of the coffee machine. 

“Who are you?” she demanded at the space behind Louis’ ear. 

All eyes turned to the guy standing silently behind Louis, his expression amused as his eyes trained on the spot behind the counter where Savannah sat twiddling her thumbs. 

“I’m Harry,” he greeted with a wave and a smirk. “Lovely to meet you. Hi Savannah.” 

Savannah swore loudly again, slowly emerging from her hiding spot with a faux grin plastered on her face. She made a show of folding up the cloth and wiping the machine with it. “Hey guys! Didn’t see you there.” 

Reyna rolled her eyes, clucking as she turned back to Harry. “You’ll have to excuse her, she’s feeling a bit loopy today. Also, who are you?” 

“I’m Harry,” Harry repeated uncertainly. 

“No, I mean, how do you know Sav here?” 

“Oh, uh-”

“-We met at Trivia Night once!” Savannah hurriedly interrupted before Harry could finish. 

Reyna blinked, the screws in her head clearly turning to try and figure out Savannah’s lie. She knew she wasn’t going to hold out for very long hiding this from her friends, but she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to try her hardest to hide it for as long as possible. 

“...Trivia night,” Alexa deadpanned, crossing her arms and glancing between the two. Louis moved to sit down at one of the tables, looking far too amused for his own good. Reyna cocked an eyebrow, her eyes barely shifting away from where they’d latched onto Sav’s face, looking for any evidence of a lie. Savannah really needed to get her friend to stop watching those bloody crime shows - they were really unhelpful when someone wanted to lie to her. 

“How about you two tell me how you really know each other?” she clucked, staring Sav down. A satisfied smirk graced her face when she noticed her friend grimace. 

The sudden awkwardness in the air could be sliced with a knife. And while Savannah stared at the floor, internally battling herself, Harry stood there patiently with his arms tucked into his jean pockets looking only slightly uncomfortable at having the spotlight trained on him in the presence of two strangers. She thought she could also see a slight smirk on his face, but she wasn’t sure if that was her imagination or not so she chose to ignore it. 

“Wait,” Louis suddenly spoke up from his corner of the room, realisation dawning on his face. Savannah’s eyes widened as she literally saw the light bulb on top of his head light up - this was even worse than Reyna figuring it out. “Mate,” he turned to Harry. “Didn’t you say you went home with someone you met at that new club last night?” 

Harry flushed slightly, clearly not comfortable with Louis sharing his antics among Reyna and Alexa - Savannah had to agree with him on that front. “Uh,” he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, “maybe,” he flicked his eyes over at Savannah helplessly. 

“And Reyna, didn’t you say that Savannah mysteriously disappeared from the same club last night?” Louis questioned, waiting for the others to catch on. 

“Um, yea- OH!” Reyna’s eyes widened, and looked back and forth between both Harry and Savannah so rapidly that Savannah was scared that her friend was going to have a seizure. 

“No,” she muttered, cheeks flushing a deep red as she tried to look at anywhere but Harry.

“Oh my god, this is great,” Reyna snickered, leaning into Louis - who’d crawled out of his seat to join them again - as she burst into a fit of giggles. Lex shifted uncomfortable, sending them both an apologetic glance and rolling her eyes. “I’m going to hold this against you two until the end of time. Beyond the end of time. I’m going to haunt you with this forever.” 

Savannah sighed, “I hate you.” 

Reyna smirked, “No, you don’t.”

“What time does your shift end, Sav?” Alexa asked kindly, trying to change the subject while Reyna continued to snicker. “We still need to start getting some of your stuff out of the apartment,” she explained. But Sav wasn’t fooled. She knew that as soon as they were in private Alexa was going to rip into her just as much as Rey.

“Wait, you’re still moving?” Louis asked curiously, finishing off the last of his muffin. He frowned, pulling out his phone and scrolling through it. 

“Yeah,” Savannah tried to brush it off. “And I finish at half four.”

“Okay perfect, that’s in-,” Alexa checked her watch, “exactly and hour and a half. We’ll head back to your apartment and then we’ll figure out what to do with you. You have the keys Rey?” 

Reyna nodded in confirmation. 

“Slight problem guys,” Louis started. “I remember Cameron - who’s still a dickhead, by the way... good riddance there, Sav - mentioning something about being out of town for a couple of weeks from tomorrow so I think you guys might be sensitive on time.” 

“What?!” Reyna and Alexa exclaimed, outrage lighting up their faces. Savannah stayed silent. 

“He didn’t mention anything to you?” Reyna looked over at Sav, who shook her head. Rey was getting angrier by the second, her words forming growls more so than actual sentences. She was silent for a moment while the group watched, wide-eyed. “I’m going to hunt him down and rip his balls off,” she said in a decidedly calm voice - which, really, was even scarier. 

“Uh… yeah, there’ll be no ball-ripping going on today,” Louis piped up, slinging an arm around his best friend’s shoulder. Sav wasn’t sure if he was trying to calm her down or hold her in place to keep her from running off to find a weapon - probably both. “We’ll figure out what to do with him when you’re coherent. And… calm.” 

She rolled her eyes, shrugging off his arm but chose not to push it. She knew it’d be more fun ruining the wanker if she had Louis helping her. 

“So we’re moving you out tonight?” Alexa asked Sav, taking note of the worried look on her face and swinging an arm around her friend to let her know everything was going to be fine. 

“We’ll come and help,” Louis supplied, looking at Savannah with those damn sympathetic eyes that everyone had been sporting around her for the past three weeks. She had half a mind to tell Louis to sod off, but Savannah couldn’t turn down the extra help when she thought about the bulky furniture. 

“Are you sure?” she asked hesitantly, internally hoping that he wouldn’t say no. 

“Yeah, of course we’ll help. Harold and I didn’t have much planned anyway.” 

“Yeah,” Harry spoke up for the first time in a while, watching Savannah curiously. She looked away when their gazes met, and couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed having him witness everything that had just happened. 

“Alright, we’ll leave you be for now. Give me a call when you’re done,” Reyna smiled at her, before ushering everyone out of the cafe. “Now, Harold my new friend,” Savannah could hear Reyna’s overly sweet voice as they walked out the door. “Tell me about your intentions with my best friend…” She rolled her eyes and when the door had safely shut behind them, slumping against the counter before letting out a massive sigh. 

-

“Lex, could you please grab my stuff from the bathroom? I think there’s a straightener in there somewhere too,” Savannah sighed as she reached on the top shelf of her cupboard to grab her suitcase. Alexa shot Reyna a warning look before disappearing from the room. 

“So…” Reyna started, only to be cut off by a flustered looking Savannah who had thrown a cashmere jumper at her face. 

“No time to talk, Rey,” she snapped, gathering a pile of clothes from her cupboard and dumping it onto her bed. Reyna sighed and started to unhook the clothes from their respective coat hangers. “If Cameron wants to give up the lease to this place then that’s his decision. It wasn’t under my name in the first place.” 

“There is no way you’re going to fit your entire wardrobe in that tiny thing,” she gestured to the suitcase sitting sadly on the bed. It was almost already half-full. 

“I’ll make it fit.” 

Alexa chose this exact moment to bound back into the room, her arms laden with women’s bath products, a straightener propped atop the pile balancing precariously. “Where exactly are you planning on going?” she asked, dumping the contents into random bag on the floor. 

“I’m not sure yet… probably to my parent’s until classes start again.” 

At this point, Savannah was sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to figure out how she was going to fit everything into her suitcase. It seemed like an impossible feat now that Reyna had pointed it out and she couldn’t help but stare glumly at all the things she wasn’t going to be able to fit inside. 

“Don’t they live four hours away?” Alexa asked. She had a vague recollection of Sav telling her where she was originally from, but couldn’t seem to place it. 

“Yeah, they live up north. Could one of you give me a lift to a train station? I’ll figure it out from there,” Savannah replied, now sorting through her entire knit collection - it was big. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Sav. Classes start in like a week, I’m not letting you move all the way back up there and then have you move all the way back down again in like six days. That’s just pointless, and kinda stupid. I have a spare room,” Lex continued, “You could stay there? I’m sure my parents won’t mind - I’ll just tell them you’re paying me rent or something.” 

“Besides, her parents love you, Sav,” Reyna pointed out as she collapsed beside Savannah. 

“Are you sure, Lex? I don’t want to intrude. Trust me when I say that I won’t exactly be the nicest person to be around for a while,” Savannah grimaced. 

“Look, I have a spare room, a bed, fresh sheets, a cupboard full of towels - basically, everything you need and more. It’ll be absolutely fine. Plus, we can bond. Reyna will stay over tonight too and we’ll get Chinese food and ice cream. And watch a Disney movie while we’re at it.” 

“You had me at Chinese food,” Savannah joked before sighing as her gaze settled on her clothes once again. “Do you reckon if I stuffed everything into the case and sat on it you guys could zip it shut?” she asked hopefully. 

“Dumplings!” Reyna exclaimed suddenly. “That’s what I’ve been craving!” she looked up at her bemused friends before clearing her throat. “Ahem, yeah that’s not going to happen.” 

“It’s really not going to fit, is it?” Sav asked forlornly, her shoulders dropping with defeat.

“That’s what she said,” Reyna mumbled only to have Alexa toss one of Savannah’s decorative cushions at her. 

“Not the time,” Alexa warned. 

“Sorry, mum” she grumbled. “Don’t worry, Sav,” Reyna began, suddenly more cheerful. “I’m sure Lexi here would be more than willing to drive down to her flat and grab you an extra suitcase, wouldn’t you, Lex?” 

“Don’t you ever call me ‘Lexi’ again,” Alexa warned, shooting Reyna a withering look. “But, yes. I’ll go grab an extra suitcase. Hopefully you’ll have sorted your life out by the time I’m back,” she nodded at the piles of clothing in front of them before heading towards the door. 

-

Twenty minutes, and two breakdowns later, Alexa sauntered through the front door with Louis and Harry in tow. 

“I’m baaack!” Alexa exclaimed, struggling to fit her massive suitcase into the room. Savannah snapped out of her reverie, moving from her position by the window and dragging herself over to the middle of the room. “Any help, guys?” she said back to Louis who rushed to help her fit the case through the narrow doorway. Harry stood back with his hands crossed, surveying the place. 

“Thanks Lex,” Savannah mumbled taking the bag off her when they finally managed to squeeze it through the room and dropped it next to Reyna. She immediately began to load it with whatever remained of Savannah’s things while Louis crouched down to help her.

Alexa, seeing Savannah’s visible distress over the entire situation went and sat herself next to her friend, putting a comforting arm over her shoulder. “Sav, it’s going to be fine. Now you can start fresh.” 

“Yeah,” she replied glumly. She loved the apartment - she didn’t want to leave it. But Alexa was right - now she could start fresh. Staying there with all of those memories wasn’t going to make things any easier for her. 

“Not to sound insensitive or whatever,” Reyna interrupted, “but this bag isn’t going to pack itself.”

“I’m just so angry right now,” Savannah said, as she and Alexa walked over to Reyna and Louis. Harry made himself at home on Savannah’s bed, still unsure what to do considering their situation. “I’m so bloody angry with him - with myself - and I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I saw Cam right now - well, other than cry. Which is fucking bullshit. I swear, once I get my degree, the first thing I’m going to do is start up a research fund to figure out why people cry when they’re angry.”

“And you can tell us all about your ideas over Chinese food and ice cream,” Alexa agreed, picking up some of Savannah’s books and shoving them carefully amongst the other supplies.

“Heeeeey, how come I’m not invited?” Louis argued, throwing a cardigan at Reyna. 

“Sorry Lou, it’s a girl’s night kind of thing,” Reyna sighed. “Also, did you know that ice cream is also a type of Chinese food? If Google is anything to go by, then ice cream is a Chinese invention.” 

“I thought it was Italian,” Savannah wondered, momentarily distracted. 

“No, that’s gelato.” 

“There’s a difference?” she raised an eyebrow, forcing a pair of heels into the suitcase.

“According to Google there is,” Reyna shrugged. 

“Ok, but why are you even googling ice cream and gelato, Rey?” Alexa asked, highly amused. 

“It was 3am and I couldn’t sleep.” 

“At least it wasn’t serial killers this time,” Alexa mumbled under her breath passing a shirt to Savannah. 

“Hey! You admitted they were interesting!” Reyna defended. 

“Only so you’d stop talking about them,” Alexa quickly shot back, dodging the same cushion she’d thrown at Reyna earlier. 

“Ah-ha!” Savannah cheered. “It’s done,” she exclaimed triumphantly. “We can leave now.” 

“You’re done?” her friends said in unison, staring at the two slightly over packed suitcases in shock - they really hadn’t thought it would be possible. 

“I’m done,” Savannah agreed. “Now let’s get out of here, I’m starved and more than ready to put all this behind me.”

“Right then,” Reyna clapped her hands as she stood and grabbed the smaller of the two suitcases. “Let’s go. We’ll all fit in your car right, Lex? Louis’ just finishing up with the truck.”

“I’m sure we’ll manage,” Alexa nodded, grabbing hold of the handle of the second suitcase. The four of them filed out of the room, leaving Savannah to herself for a moment. 

“Just one more thing,” Savannah said to herself, walking towards the window where she kept the plant that she’d bought when she first moved in with Cameron. Glumly, she stared at it for a good two minutes, picking it up and observing it from all angles. As hard as she tried to leave it behind, she couldn’t seem to let it go. 

“Hey, are you-”

Savannah screamed, her whole body jolting in surprise and shock as she lost all control of her actions and watched as she subconsciously launched the closest thing she had to her at the intruder - which happened to be the pot in her hand.

Harry’s eyes widened momentarily before he ducked, his hands flying to protect his head. The pot skimmed the top of his hair and shattered against the wall behind him. “What the fuck!?” 

“Ohmygod I am so sorry,” Savannah exclaimed, rushing over to him and inspecting his head to see if he was ok. “I wasn’t thinking-”

“It’s fine, I’m fine,” Harry chuckled, rubbing the spot on his head where it had almost been impaled with a ceramic pot, while batting Sav away from where she was trying to push Harry to the floor so she could get a better look at his head. “Your friend Reyna sent me back here to check on you,” he explained, dodging her hands again. 

“I’m fine,” she tried not to smile, shuffling slightly. She glanced back at the plant that was now definitely going to be left behind.

“It didn’t look like you were,” he pointed out, reminding her that he’d caught her in a sentimental moment. “It’s ok if you want to stay for a bit… reminisce and all that.” 

“It’s silly,” she shook her head. “I’m ready to leave.” 

“It’s fine, I’ll wait,” he ignored her last comment, moving to back out of the room slowly. Savannah sighed at his stubbornness, waiting until he was out of view before taking one long look at her room. Most of the room had been cleared out, but there were still piles here and there of Cameron’s belongings and she couldn’t help but think about the times when they were still happy. They’d been so happy, and they probably would’ve stayed that way - but then he screwed it up. 

Shaking all of those dangerous thoughts off, she closed her eyes for a moment before slamming her defenses back up. She wasn’t doing herself a favour looking back on the past when the present was there to welcome her with open arms. 

She plastered a smile on her face before leaving the room to find Harry leaning against the wall in the hallway outside her room. He paused his typing as he watched her walk towards him. 

“You ok?” he asked, locking his phone and sliding it back in his pocket. 

“Yeah, I think,” she replied uncertainly. 

“It’ll all work out in the end, Sav.” 

Savannah’s ears perked at the strange sound of her nickname coming out of his mouth. She’d met this guy less than 24 hours ago and yet he was here, giving her life advice and helping her move out of her ex’s place. 

“Did you just call me Sav?” 

His eyes widened, “I guess so,” he said thoughtfully.

“This is weird, isn’t it?” she asked awkwardly, moving to leave through the front door. 

Harry made a sound that was somewhere between a scoff and a chuckle before replying. “Yeah, you can say that.” 

-

“I can’t believe we just managed to move my entire life out of that place,” Savannah said the moment they were all safely inside Alexa’s - and now Savannah’s - flat. “I can’t believe I’m free from that nightmare,” she turned to her friends, eyes wide with disbelief.

“Well done, champ!” Reyna smiled, smacking Savannah on the back in congratulations. “What?” She asked after noticing the equally bemused expressions on Lex and Sav’s faces. “My dad used to do that whenever I won something,” she muttered. “It’s not that weird!” she defended. 

“It’s weird,” Lex said, moving to dump Savannah’s belongings in the spare room. Louis and Harry had already finished bringing up all of the furniture, of which included a fluffy pink armchair that Louis had complained about from the moment he’d unloaded it from the truck until he was up in Alexa’s flat on the fourth floor of the building. According to him, it was an offense to his masculinity which just made all the girls sigh and roll their eyes. 

“It’s a little weird,” Savannah agreed, when Reyna turned to her in search of support. 

“You guys suck,” she poked her tongue out before following Lex. “By the way, I’m not ordering the food, I hate speaking on the phone.” 

“We know,” Lex chuckled as she passed Reyna and collapsed onto her favourite sofa. It had been a housewarming gift from one of her relatives when she’d first moved in. Initially Alexa had been dubious about the colour - a bright red reminiscent of poppies - but over time she found herself growing fonder of the piece of furniture. With its coffee stains from nights she’d stayed up late studying for exams, and the slightly faded cushion perched to support her back when she read a particularly compelling novel, Alexa thought she - the couch - had character, character only she seemed to be aware of but she didn’t mind. 

“Hi, can I please have some pork dumplings? Yes I’ll have that too. And some beef chow mien, some barbeque pork chow mien. And maybe some chicken fried rice too please. Oh! Some moo shoo pork too please. And whatever your soup of the day is. And some prawn crackers. And some fortune cookies too!” Savannah was sitting at the kitchen island, a Chinese takeaway menu situated in front of her. 

“Is that all?” the voice on the other line asked a bit frantically. 

“Yes, I think so,” Savannah replied, biting her lip uncertainly as she quickly scanned through the menu one last time. She quickly gave the operator the address and finalised the transaction before hanging up and turning towards her best friends’ dumbstruck expressions. “...what?” 

“Are you planning to feed an army or…?” Lex spoke up from her position on the couch. 

“I think you’re forgetting that reheated Chinese food could possibly be the best dish in the world. That, and cold pizza.” Sav argued, flinging the menu onto the counter and heading over to join them on the couch. 

Reyna laughed, “I guess I’ll just run down to the closest Tesco and grab us some snacks. You guys can choose the movie,” she flicked the TV on and the bright logo of Netflix lit up the screen. 

As soon as the door was shut, Savannah left Alexa to battle the endless titles and genres while she went into her room to unpack and sort out her life. The room was much smaller than the one she had shared with Cameron - a ‘cozy’ small. A double bed took up the majority of the available space, but Alexa had managed to squeeze in a desk on the far corner of the room, and a bookshelf. The window in the room jutted out, forming a bench that Alexa had decorated with various cushions. Savannah dragged her armchair over and sat it next to the bookshelf, creating a cute little reading corner before stepping back to inspect her work. 

She quickly changed out of her work outfit and figured that now was as great a time as any to start unpacking. She set out hanging up all of her clothes in the wardrobe and was almost done when Alexa walked in with the remote in hand, looking slightly stressed. 

“There’re too many movies, I can’t choose. Can we just tell Reyna that you asked me to help you before I could decide?” she laughed, plopping down onto the bed. 

“Only if you help me,” Savannah grinned, gesturing towards the other suitcase. Lex rolled her eyes and headed over to the far side of the room where the larger suitcase sat open, its contents spilling out onto the floor. 

“This is my exercise for the year,” she grumbled, tugging out all of her books. “Do you organise by title or author?” 

Savannah stared at her friend as if she’d grown a fifth limb. “Look, I don’t care which way you do it, I’m going to end up getting used to it anyway. If it makes it any easier for you, just shove everything onto the shelves and I’ll fix it up sometime tomorrow.”

For about half an hour, the two worked quietly - organising clothing, sorting out shoes and occasionally shifting furniture here and there. As if they had timed it, Reyna waltzed into the flat as soon as they had packed away the suitcases, arms laden with shopping bags. “There’s ice cream, crisps and chocolate in that bag. I also decided to stock you up with some tea,” she threw the box at Alexa who caught it with one hand. “Oh, and I bought a cake!” 

“Ok, first Savannah with the Chinese food and now you with all this stuff,” Alexa groaned at the sheer mass of junk food Reyna was carrying. “How much of that are you really going to be able to eat?”

“If it’s Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, as much as I want. The size of my stomach can’t stop me from doing what I love,” Reyna joked. “Speaking of my babies, they’re melting and your freezer is filled with microwavable meals,” Reyna added in a tone of disgust. “Come help me throw that junk out so we can make some room.” 

“Watch what you call junk,” Alexa defended as she stood up from her perch. “You’re the one who bought a cake.” 

“I’ve just stocked you up with a three-month supply of study food and tea,” Reyna shot back as the three of them unloaded the bags, “I wouldn’t be complaining if I were you.” 

The doorbell rang as the girls packed the food away and Savannah abandoned the mountain of microwaveable goods to answer the door. On the other side stood a slightly red-faced delivery boy and in his hands were three bags stuffed to the brim with disposable containers. Savannah quickly grabbed them off him before he could drop them and paid him, leaving a generous tip as a thanks for having to put up with her excessive order.

“Food’s here!” Sav bellowed into the apartment, kicking the door shut with her foot. She dropped the bags onto the kitchen bench where it joined the pile of junk food scattered there. 

“We heard!” Alexa shook her head before pulling the containers out of the bags, directing Reyna to grab some plates out of the cupboard. She transferred some of the rice and chicken onto her plate before heading over to the couches. 

“Wait, we’re eating over there?” Reyna asked, a little surprised. The only time Alexa had let them eat in the lounge was when they had exams. 

“It’s a special occasion,” Lex shrugged. “Don’t get used to it,” she added after spotting the smirk on Savannah’s face. “Just because we’re roomies doesn’t mean my rules change.” 

Savannah rolled her eyes as she collapsed into a cushion, Reyna doing the same after placing the Chinese food on the small coffee table between them. “And here I thought this was going to be fun,” she sighed, dodging the tissue box Alexa threw at her. 

“So what’re we watching?” Savannah asked around a mouthful of some fried rice as they all stared at the selection on the screen. 

“None of these will make me cry,” Reyna answered, flicking through the comedy section with one hand while she forked another bite of chicken with her other. “I feel like crying.” 

“You’re actually so strange” Savannah laughed, even though she was used to Reyna’s crazy mood swings. 

“Sure am,” she agreed. “But you love me for it. Marley & Me it is then,” she grinned evilly, watching Alexa’s reaction out of the corner of her eye. 

“No,” Alexa replied instantly, glaring ferociously at her. “You know how I feel about that movie. They killed the dog. How dare they?! I’d rather they killed the entire bloody cast than the puppy.” 

“That’s a bit morbid,” Sav quipped. 

“Killing an innocent puppy is morbid,” Alexa sniffed. 

“Alright, alright. So not Marley & Me,” Reyna mused. “A Walk To Remember?” 

When no arguments came, she clicked the play button, the three of them settling in for a long night of guilty pleasures.


	3. apple martini

Savannah was clever. That was a simple fact and almost everyone knew it. She knew how work a situation so that it benefited her and she knew how to manipulate people into doing whatever she wanted - which was partially why she’d gone into Psychology. She’d figured she might as well make a career out of it since she was so good at it.

Or she had been - until she’d met Reyna and Alexa. Of the seven billion people in the world, Savannah had managed to befriend possibly the only two who seemed to see right through her. Which was why she couldn’t seem to get them to stop bloody asking if she was alright - which  _ she was - _ but that apparently hadn’t been the answer they were looking for so they began to pester her about Harry Styles instead. Which, again would have been fine and perfectly avoidable if not for Louis.

“Look, I’ll answer whatever questions you guys have later,” she eventually gave in. “But I have class in less than an hour and I’d  _ really  _ appreciate not being late on my first day back at uni.”

“I think that’s something we’d all like,” Reyna sniffed, staring disinterestedly down at her nails. “And it could have all been very well avoided if you’d just answered a few very simple questions when I - we - asked them,” she corrected herself.

“Fine,” she caved. “I’ll answer whatever questions you have as long as Lex starts driving and you promise that the conversation ends as soon as we get to uni. Permanently. That means no more questions about Harry and no more jokes and prodding and loosely hidden innuendoes,” she looked pointedly over at Reyna.

“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes. “Always knew you were a prude anyway,” Reyna shrugged, earning herself a swift punch in return when she leaned between the seats. “Ow,” she glared.

“I’m not a prude!” Savannah argued, throwing a look over at Reyna who was sat in the cramped backseat with all of their bags and textbooks. “I just don’t like my personal life to be out there in the open like you do.”

“What personal life,” she snorted.

“Reyna!” Alexa exclaimed, shooting her a shocked look. “You can't just say things like that after what she's been through.”

Reyna rolled her eyes and glanced at Savannah who was staring back at her with a slightly closed off expression. “I just meant you end up sharing everything with us eventually, is all,” she said softly, glaring once again when Sav’s expression turned cheeky. “You just played me!” she pointed, narrowing her eyes.

“Not fun, is it?” Sav grinned, turning back around to stare out of the front of the car.

“Whatever,” Reyna grumbled, crossing her arms. “Did you have fun?” she asked.

“What?” Savannah shot her a confused look.

“With Harry,” she clarified. “Did you have fun? That's my question.”

“Oh,” Sav frowned a little. “I mean, I don't remember much,” she admitted, “but yeah. Yeah, it was fun.”

“Ok then,” Reyna leaned back. “That's pretty much all I want to know since you're not willing to really share the gory details.”

Alexa rolled her eyes. “You gonna see him again?” she couldn't help but ask.

“Probably,” Savannah scoffed. “ _ Not like that _ ,” she quickly rushed when she noticed Reyna's eyebrows start to rise. “I just mean he's friends with Louis so it's pretty much impossible for me not to see him again, innit? No matter how much I hope not to,” she muttered under her breath.

“Aw, come on. It can’t be that bad. He seems nice,” Alexa tried to comfort her.

“Yeah, I’m sure he is. But it’s not him I’m worried about.”

“Louis?” Reyna guessed sympathetically.

Savannah didn’t answer. She loved Louis like a brother – she couldn’t exactly escape him because he and Reyna were apparently attached at the hip – but he had a tendency to not think about what he said before blurting it out and having him around wasn’t exactly comforting when it came to delicate situations like the one she currently had with Harry.

“Look, I’ll chat to him,” Reyna reassured her friend with a pat on the shoulder. “Tell him I’ll shave his eyebrows off if he says something stupid.”

Alexa snorted, “I don’t think that’ll work, he’ll probably think that it’s hilarious.”

“Sadly you might be right,” Reyna sighed from the backseat. “Louis has always been uncontrollable.”

“Speak of the devil…” Savannah trailed off, pointing to a figure walking towards their stationary car.

“Hey girls,” he leaned his head in through the rear window, a smug smile playing on his lips. “What do we have here?”

“Louis this light is going to change in approximately 2.5 seconds, I’d suggest you move if you don’t want your head chopped off,” Alexa warned, her head twisting back to glare at him.

“Guess I’ll have to join you, then,” he said, pulling the door open and shoving Reyna into the pile of bags against the door. “How’ve you all been?”

“I was fine until you almost killed me with the bags,” Reyna grumbled, frowning. Louis smirked and flicked her nose with his finger.

“Now, suffocation via textbooks is not the way you want to go, I can assure you,” he said matter-of-factly.  

“Thanks so much for the tip,” she quipped in reply, rolling her eyes. “Like I had much of a choice with your aggressive actions.”

“So, Sav,” Louis started, ignoring Reyna and leaning in between the seats as Alexa looked for a place to park. “Have you talked to our dear Mr. Styles since we helped you escape the fiery dungeons of the Red Keep?”

Savannah blinked, “Come again?”

Louis sighed, “Sometimes your lack of culture astounds me. Game of Thrones reference,” he clarified.

She rolled her eyes, sighing before pointing out an open space to Alexa, “If I wanted incest and rape, I’d read a history book. Also, I haven’t.”

“Looks like that’s going to change,” he grinned, pointing out a tall brunette guy leaning against the brick wall of the lecture hall Savannah had her first class in.

“You set this up!” she said accusatorily, hooking her bag over her shoulder and climbing out of the car. Everyone else followed suit, moving towards the building as Alexa scrambled to lock her car.

Louis grinned, not even moving to deny it. “I may have been going through Reyna’s phone one day and saw that you emailed each other your class schedules,” he stated haughtily. “A bit of shuffling and hacking into Harry’s student account means that you two now have most of your classes in the same buildings.”

“Louis, what the hell?” Reyna smacked him on the arm.

“You’re an absolute freak, Tomlinson,” Savannah scoffed. “That’s such a violation of privacy. Change his back now!”

“Well, I can’t  _ now _ ,” he said, rubbing his arm carefully. “It’s too late and most of the other classes are already full. Fool didn’t even know what had happened. Besides, it’s only the lectures – in what world would the Psych classes be in the Law building?”

“That doesn’t make this any better. You’re intentionally making my life hell, and you’re going to pay for it,” she warned, glaring at him before grabbing Alexa and pulling her along with her. Not wanting to be rude, Savannah smiled and waved at Harry before pushing her way through the doors.

“You’re dead,” Reyna warned Louis before turning to follow her friends into the building. She paused after a couple of steps, turned back and punched him on the arm again.

“Ow,” he complained, glaring at her as Harry walked over with a confused look.

“Everything alright?” he asked carefully.

“Just peachy,” Reyna replied a little too brightly.

“Riiiight,” Harry dragged out the word, his already slow drawl exaggerating his disbelief. “Is there anything I can do to help...this?” he waved his hands to gesture at the two of them.

“Yeah,” Reyna nodded, hitching her bag higher up on her shoulder as she prepared to leave for her own lessons. “Start planning his funeral,” she pointed to Louis without glancing at him before stomping off.

“Looks like you're in for it, mate,” Harry commented amusedly.

“Shove off,” Louis glared, his eyes following Reyna as she disappeared after her friends.

-

“Hey.”

“Bloody hell,” Savannah jumped, twisting around to face the voice. “Make some noise next time will you? Almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” Harry grinned, pulling out the seat beside her and slouching into it. “And sorry about Louis too, by the way,” he gestured to the building he’d just walked out of, which was incidentally the same one Savannah had vacated only moments before.

“Yeah,” she shrugged, simultaneously rolling her eyes. “I’m pretty used to his meddling by now so I should’ve expected it when he caught on that we, uh, knew one another.”

“If it helps, your friend with the scary eyes gave it to him pretty good earlier. If I wasn’t so miffed at him myself, I’d probably be a little worried. But,” he leaned forward to rest his arms on the table before turning his body towards Savannah, “I’m actually looking forward to seeing him squirm a little.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” she scoffed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Louis scared of anyone.”

“Dunno, he seemed pretty worried after Reyna had walked away. Kept mumbling about how he’s always sticking his foot in his mouth.”

Savannah quirked an eyebrow. “So the ‘friend with the scary eyes’ is Reyna now?”

“He never shuts up about her, I probably knew her name before I even knew yours,” he shrugs. “What?” he asked nervously, noticing the way her eyes seemed to take up a slightly devious glint.

“Nothing,” she grinned. “That’s just an interesting development.”

“Interesting?” Harry scoffed. “Try annoying. Every time we go somewhere it’s ‘oh, Rey told me about this place’ or ‘Rey would like this’ or ‘Reyna this and Reyna that’. I know more about her than I’d necessarily like,” he grumbled.

Savannah laughed at him. “Yeah, this is definitely something I can use against him.”

Harry groaned. “Please don’t start a war with him,” he begged. “The last time someone started a war with Louis we all ended up spending the night at the police station. I still haven’t heard the end of that from my dad. He banned me from seeing Louis for two weeks afterwards. I was twenty. My dad grounded me when I was twenty because of Louis,” he frowned. “Maybe he had the right idea banning me from seeing him.”

“You’re joking,” she bit her lip to keep from laughing, but the moment Harry nodded with a miserable expression on his face, Savannah couldn’t help the laugh that burst through her lips. “That’s bloody brilliant. Wait till the girls hear about this.”

“Oh, please, no. Don’t,” he asked weakly, knowing it was probably no use.

“Think it’s only fair considering how much you probably know about us from Louis and his ridiculously loud mouth.”  

Harry grinned cheekily. “He did tell me about that time you were all invited to his place and-”

Savannah cut him off. “Don’t even finish that sentence, please,” she grimaced at the memory. “Even though no one will admit it, I’m pretty sure that’s the reason Louis’ family comes to visit him now instead of him heading down.”

“Can you blame them?” Harry chirped, far too amused for his own good.

“Probably not. Come on,” she changed the subject, shoving all her things into her bag. “We’ve got another class in about fifteen minutes.”

“How do you know that?” he shot her a confused look.

“Louis apparently doesn’t understand the term ‘quit meddling’ and forwarded me your timetable,” she sighed, standing up and hooking her bag over her shoulder. “I need to get a backpack,” she frowned as the weight on her shoulder caused her body to tilt to the right.

“So you memorised it?” Harry raised his eyebrows as he fell into step beside her.

“Can’t help it,” she shrugged. “I have a knack for remembering things that I’d much rather forget,” she side eyed him pointedly.

“Hey!” he protested indignantly. “If anything, it should be Louis you’re trying to forget. He’s the twat in this whole ordeal. We’re just the victims.”

Savannah merely shrugged. “If you say so. Do you have a ride after class?”

“Why, are you offering?” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“I was going to, until that comment,” she glared, making him laugh.

“Thanks, but I’m driving,” he smiled.

“See when you do that, you seem almost normal,” Savannah shook her head.

“Do what?”

“Smile,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I’m always smiling,” he sounded affronted.

“No,” Sav shook her head. “You’re always smirking. It’s different and doesn’t count.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “I’ve got an entire term of this to look forward to, don’t I?” he sighed.

“Pretty much, yeah,” she grinned, stopping in front of her lecture room. “I’ll see you around, Harry.”

“See you, Sav,” he waved walking backwards for a few seconds until she disappeared into the room.

-

By the time 4:30pm came around, Savannah was ready to go home and collapse into her bed. Her first day had been filled with gruelling lectures, and a compulsory introductory tutorial class that she had been to every single semester for the past two and a half years. Her head was filled with so much content that it felt like it was bursting at the seams - and she just knew that the next few months were going to be crazy.

The only problem was that Alexa was in a lecture and wouldn’t be out until 6pm, and considering she held the only key to the apartment, Savannah had no other option than to sit by herself in the university’s dining hall for the next hour or so.

She found an empty seat in the darkest corner of the hall and plopped herself down, pulling out her laptop and opting to get a head start on all of her notes while she was still ahead - a strange concept for her. She had just finished up when she looked up just in time to see a hunched figure sit themselves down next to her.

“Zayn,” she said, trying to hide her shock. He smelt like a mix of cigarettes and spray paint, which meant that classes had finished for him a while ago.

“Hey,” he greeted her, looking exhausted and slightly sheepish when he noticed her staring at the amount of colour he still had on his hands. “What’s up, Sav?”

“Doing some therapeutic art?” she observed. She had met Zayn a few months ago, when Reyna had first started placement at the hospital and he’d needed a lift home with the girls. 

Zayn looked sheepish for a second before nodding. “Yeah, and I got it all over my lab coat too. Spent the past hour trying to bleach all of the colours out.”

“Good thing it’s white then,” she laughed, sliding half her muffin over to him. He thanked her silently before pulling off a chunk and popping it into his mouth.

“Not too sure my demonstrators will enjoy the smell though,” he noted, chuckling lightly.

“Oh please, you guys work around bacteria all day. Reyna’s apartment basically smells like those weird agar plate things that you guys use. Bleach is the least of your worries,” Savannah laughed, finishing off her sentence and closing the file.

“How are your classes so far?” he asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Pretty intense,” she replied, “But nothing against Medicine, I’d say,” she smiled. “Reyna brought three textbooks into one of her classes today. I don’t know how you guys do it.”

Zayn smiled, “That sounds like something that she’d do… how is she, by the way? And Alexa too?”

“They’re good!” Savannah replied truthfully. “I can slowly feel Alexa’s stress levels rising, though, so ask me that question again in a few weeks’ time,” she laughed.

“Ditto,” he agreed. “Speaking of stress levels, I’m throwing a party at mine this weekend. Just something casual to celebrate the start of the new term. I was going to text Rey about it later, but since I’ve got you here might as well tell you about it Bring Alexa and Reyna and all that. It’d be cool to have you guys there,” he plopped the rest of the muffin into his mouth. “Rey and I can compare timetables, see if we have any labs together. It'd be good to partner up with a familiar face,” he said more to himself.  

“That sounds great,” she said excitedly. “The girls would love to come – don’t think we have any plans.”

“Excellent,” he said, moving to stand up. “I gotta go. Text me if you need anything.”

“Lex should be finishing soon,” Savannah frowned, checking the time. “Did you want to wait to say hi?”

Zayn rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “I would, but I have a meeting at six. Tell her I said hey though!”

And with that, he was gone. Savannah’s plans of getting Zayn and Alexa together were difficult, but realistic, and she was going to make damned sure that it would happen before they graduated. She had already recruited the help of Reyna - though she was pretty useless in all aspects of romance - but she was a key factor in getting to Zayn.

-

“I can’t believe I agreed to do this,” Alexa groaned, resting against the steering wheel as Savannah sat in the passenger seat with her laptop open, the glow being the only source of light within the car.

Savannah shrugged, “This is all your fault. You know how persuasive Reyna can be. It’s best to just walk away whenever you see her sporting puppy dog eyes.”

“This is true,” Lex sighed, closing her eyes briefly before leaning back to watch the doors to the emergency ward closely. “I can’t believe we’ll be doing this three times a week for the next ten or so weeks. At the rate we’re going, I’m going to buy her a car before the term’s up.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t complain about that,” Sav laughed, tapping away on her keyboard as she summarised the last of the day’s lecture. “How was class today, by the way? Learn anything new?”

Alexa shot her friend a look before rolling her eyes, “Sav I study art. Everyday in class learning from those professors is another day for me to feel inadequate about my work. But no, not really. We just partnered up for one of our projects and that was basically it.”

“Sounds… boring as hell,” Savannah made a face. “Who’s your partner?”

“Some dude named Jeremy. Bit of a tosser, really,” Alexa replied, drumming on the steering wheel impatiently.

“Who’s a tosser?” a voice piped up through the window on the left side of the car. Both Savannah and Alexa jolted in shock at the sight of Reyna’s dishevelled form in her pale blue scrubs.

“Is it just me or is everyone trying to give me a heart attack today?” Sav muttered, thinking back to earlier in the day with Harry.

“Ooh, you think? Perfect timing to have a heart attack, by the way. You’re literally three metres away from the emergency department,” Rey replied, sliding into the backseat and promptly closing her eyes and leaning into the leather. “Now tell me who’s a tosser.”

“Alexa’s new project partner, apparently,” Sav replied, saving her file and closing her laptop.

“Is he cute?”

“Why is that always your first response to everything?” Alexa said exasperatedly, starting the car and pulling out of the carpark. “Also, I hate to say this but I may have to go back on my word about this whole picking you up after work business.”

“Hey! We had a deal - you wouldn’t leave your struggling friend who’s studying how to save lives, to catch a bus by herself a night, right?” Reyna replied, batting her eyes innocently. “I promised one of the sick little kiddies I’d see them next week. Are you really going to turn me into a liar if something happens to me in the dead of night?”

“Just give in, she’ll talk you into it eventually,” Savannah piped up unnecessarily.

There was a beat of silence as Alexa seriously considered her options. “Ok, fair point. But why can’t you make Louis get you instead?”

“Oh please, with the way Louis drives, I’d rather catch the bus. I’ll have a lesser chance of dying that way.”

“This is true,” Savannah commented once again.

“Anyway, stop avoiding the question - who is Jeremy and is he cute?” Reyna asked, changing the subject back to the original topic.

“Like we said, Jeremy is my new project partner,” Alexa started, turning right down her street. “And because I’m not you, I haven’t completely noticed his level of cuteness.”

“Yeah, and that’s because you’re completely hung up on somebody else,” Reyna teased. “He says hi, by the way.”

“What?” Alexa glanced at her through the mirror sharply.

“Yeah, we’re on rotation together. He’s taking the bus home,” she shrugged.

“ _ What?” _ Alexa repeated, while Savannah reached back and tried to whack her on the knee.

“Ow,  _ I’m kidding!”  _ Reyna whelped, curling away from her friend’s reach. “Your man’s coming to pick him up in ten,” she nodded to Sav.

“My man?”

“Yeah, the one we met a couple of weeks back. Harry,” she grinned devilishly.

“You’re a twat,” Savannah rolled her eyes, turning to face the front of the car once again.

“A tired twat,” Reyna groaned. “I have no idea how I’m going to make it to Zayn’s place this weekend.”

“You have to come,” Savannah glared. “I already told him we would all be there.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Reyna waved her off. “I promised him I’d show up too, so I can’t exactly get out of it now. Maybe I should just sleep for all of tomorrow. That should keep me awake for the whole weekend.”

“I don’t think that’s entirely healthy,” Alexa stated, pulling into her usual parking spot and turning off the engine.

“Nothing’s entirely healthy when you’re studying what I study, Lex,” Reyna reminded them as they headed towards the elevators that would take them up to Alexa’s apartment.

“The irony,” Savannah noted, laughing lightly. “You guys are out here saving lives while barely surviving, yourself.”

“Whatever makes me six figures a year, Sav,” Reyna joked, snickering slightly while Alexa shot her a bemused look.

“Remind me not to die anywhere near her – wouldn’t want to contribute to her salary in any way,” she commented, unlocking her front door and letting the girls in. Savannah dumped her bag by the lounge and fell backwards onto the couch.

Reyna rolled her eyes, following suit and collapsing next to Savannah. “Do you guys have any leftover food?”

“Yes, please eat it all before it goes bad,” Alexa begged, opening the fridge and pulling out the various containers. “I can’t believe this food’s lasted us a week. This is borderline ridiculous.”

“It’s called planning in advance, Lexie,” Reyna teased. “Now are you going to hand me a plate or not?”

-

“I can’t believe we’re having this discussion,” Savannah rolled her eyes, spooning some pasta into her mouth while she waited for her uni emails to load. “The sauce goes  _ in the fridge _ .”

“That’s disgusting, why would you want cold sauce on your hot food?” Harry asked seriously, a tomato sauce-drowned fry hanging inches from his mouth, a look of utter astonishment on his face as he looked at Savannah.

“Sometimes food needs a bit of variance,” she shrugged, noting the time changes for one of her upcoming lectures before shutting the screen. “Why would you want room temperature sauce on your hot food? That’s even worse.”

Harry popped the chip into his mouth and chewed carefully while he thought about his next point. “You’re wrong,” he stated simply, unable to think up an argument that Savannah wouldn’t be able to counter. “Sauce goes in the pantry, end of story.”

“I will fight you on this until the end of time,” she said, popping her laptop back into her bag and turning back to her pasta.

“You’re the one who brought it up!” he said defensively. Their spat was now attracting the attention of the people also seated in the same café, who cast them curious looks intermittently.

“Whatever,” Savannah waved the issue away, casually changing topics. “How’s your week at uni been? Done anything interesting?”

“Please, I’m already drowning in work. It’s already going to be a horrible term,” he replied sullenly.

Savannah could relate – one week of classes and she was already feeling the pressure from their teachers. She and Harry had spent most of their breaks between lectures together – largely thanks to Louis – and the time they were together, they were either complaining about their current workload or working on summarising their introductory lectures – which were two hours or more each.

“At least we have Zayn’s party to look forward to,” Savannah shrugged, forking a piece of pasta and popping it into her mouth. “It’s good to finally not think about the impending doom of a semester.”

“Nice imagery, Sav,” Harry snorted, finishing off the last of his fries and pushing the dish aside. “Although, hate to break it to you, but I don’t think I’ll be coming.”

“What? Why not?” she asked, perplexed. It had come up every time they had time to chat that week and this was the first time she’d heard of this.

“Ah, my dad emailed me this morning telling me that I have dinner at their house on Saturday night. So it’s a no from me,” he said apologetically.

“You can’t get out of it at all?” she asked sadly – her plans to prank Harry had been foiled by this unexpected complication.

“Nope,” he replied, lips popping on the ‘p’. “What father wants, I must deliver.”

Savannah had been brought up by a mother who’d pretty much let her run free – and so seeing this non-negotiation father-son relationship was something new to her. Reyna and Alexa’s parents were also strict, but she knew that they could be talked out of family dinners. Harry’s not so much, it seemed, which was perplexing to Savannah. She thanked the universe that her mum allowed her to do as much as she did.

“Well that’s a shame,” she poked at the few pieces of pasta left in front of her.

“Why, you gonna miss me?” Harry teased jokingly.

“The night’s gonna be a total dud now without you there,” Sav monotoned back at him, making Harry laugh.

“No need to be like that, I’m sure you’ll find other opportunities to play tricks on me,” he tapped his nose knowingly.

“Who told you that?” Savannah narrowed her eyes at him, pushing the pasta aside after deciding she didn’t have anymore room left for it.

Harry just shrugged.

“I haven’t even told anyone about that,” she pushed. “So how’d you find out?”

“You forget that we’re pretty much together for several hours a day, five days a week,” he grinned. “And you tend to leave your notebook open when you leave for the bathroom. I might have caught a glimpse of a page dedicated to me.”

“Bummer,” she muttered.

“Bummer?” Harry quirked a brow. “That's a new one.”

“Yeah, I don't really know where it came from. Probably one of the girls,” she shrugged.

“You guys are pretty close, yeah?” he quizzed her.

“I’ve only known them for a couple of years but they’re pretty much my best friends; them, and Louis too - on the odd occasion he’s not being annoying. Rey and Louis have known each other for  _ ages  _ though so they’re probably the closest. What about you guys?”

“I met Lou cause we had a class together, and that was pretty much it,” he shrugged. “We got partnered up for a project in one of the business electives my dad insisted I take and then once the project was over, he just kept popping up everywhere I went.”

“He’s a bit on the clingy side, isn’t he?” Sav mused, unable to hide the fondness in her voice.  

“You’re telling me,” Harry snorted. “You know, once I woke up to find him passed out in my kitchen. I  _ still  _ have no idea how he got in. And all he said when I woke him up was that I need to get better locks, before helping himself to my food.”

Savannah burst out laughing at the completely outraged look on Harry’s face. “It’s not funny,” he mumbled, even as his own lips twitched.

“It’s a little bit funny,” she grinned at him toothily. “Louis learnt how to pick locks when he was sixteen so he could sneak into his parent’s liquor cabinet when they went away on business trips. According to him and Rey, he used to throw some of the best parties.”

“Until he got caught,” Harry supplied for her. “He likes telling that story, especially when he’s drunk.”

“Yeah,” she grinned. “Usually when we go out, we all take bets on how long it’ll take for him to whip it out.”

“That’s what she-”

“Don’t,” Sav warned him. “You know, I’m starting to see why you and Louis are friends. You’re both childish, you just try to hide.”

“I do not.”

“Whatever you say,” she sing-songed. “Are you absolutely sure you can’t skip your dinner or whatever?” she asked after a second.

“Believe me, no one wants me to skip the dinner more than I do,” he admitted miserably. “But I don’t have any choice,” he sighed. “Dad’s meeting with some super important people from different law firms and I have to be there to smile and pretty much suck up to them all. It’s apparently really important that I start networking from now if I want to have a guaranteed job after I graduate,” he rolled his eyes.

“But, doesn’t your dad run his own firm?” she frowned.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “But he doesn’t want me to get complacent and if I get offered a job he wants me to actually consider it seriously - before obviously turning it down,” he shook his head. “And since I’m most likely going to inherit his firm once he retires, he wants me to make my own connections.”

“That sounds shitty,” Sav commented.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he moaned. “An entire night dressed in a stuffy suit with men who think they’re the centre of the universe - I’d much rather listen to a drunk Louis tell the same story over and over again.”

“Don’t worry,” Savannah grinned deviously. “We’ll make sure to send you some snaps from the party so you can see exactly what you’re missing out on.”

“Oh gee, now I really can’t wait,” Harry monotoned.

“Cheer up, Harry, I’m sure there’ll be other parties,” she pat him on the back.

“You’re really not helping, you know that right?” he turned to face her.

“I know,” she said, the smile on her lips growing the more Harry glared at her.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave,” Harry said, gesturing to the emptying lecture theatre behind them. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, see ya,” Savannah mock saluted him, where Harry responded with an eye roll and a wave. 

-

 


	4. vodka sunrise

A collective sigh of relief could be heard from Savannah and her coworkers when the bell at the cafe door dinged, announcing the departure of their last customer. They hadn’t had a moment to catch a breath since the opening of the cafe and were glad to see the tables empty. 

“I can’t believe this shift is finally over,” Maeve - one of Savannah’s closest workmates - groaned, untying her apron and pulling it off. She slumped down in one of the chairs, Savannah following suit as they both rested their heads against the table and closed their eyes to rest. 

“That was actually ridiculous. I hate Saturdays,” Sav agreed, trying to keep herself awake. She still had a party to go to that night so passing out just wasn’t an option for her. “Did you lock the door? Because if you didn’t, I might just yell bloody murder at the next person who dares to walk in here.” 

“That’s beautiful customer service right there, Sav,” Christian, one of their kitchen hands, grinned. He set two sandwiches down by her and Maeve’s heads. “BLTs to go,” he explained, “thought you guys might need an energy boost on the way home.” 

“The man, the myth, the legend everyone,” Maeve exclaimed thankfully, clapping loudly as he mockingly bowed graciously. 

“Thank you, thank you. I live to impress my loyal subjects,” he joked.

“Oh get over yourself,” Savannah brushed him off lightly. “Thanks for the sandwiches though, it’s really nice of you,” she added, watching as his cheeks tinged slightly pink at her compliment. 

“It’s fine, I didn’t want all that food to go to waste,” he said nonchalantly, shuffling slightly. “Anyways, I better clean up and go home. Got an assignment to finish.” 

“Ah, sounds brutal,” Savannah winced, grabbing her sandwich and unwrapping it to take a bite. She and Maeve waved solemnly to Christian as he disappeared behind the kitchen door. 

“He’s such a nice boy,” Maeve commented, also picking up her sandwich. 

“He is.”

“He’s also crazy about you,” she continued.

“He’s also eighteen,” Savannah countered.

“Age is nothing but a number,” Maeve joked, taking a bite of her snack and grinning angelically at Sav. 

“Until it’s illegal,” she replied dryly. “We need to find him a nice girl.” The cogs were already turning in Sav’s mind, and she knew that if either Reyna or Alexa were there, they’d be stopping her plan in its tracks. Luckily for her though, Maeve wasn’t quite as intuitive as her two best friends were and so was completely oblivious to her plan. 

“Yeah, if he ever had eyes for anyone else, that might actually work,” she replied sarcastically. “Anyways, have you got yourself a boy yet? Kinda leaving it a bit late, aren’t ya?” she joked.

Savannah rolled her eyes, throwing a scrunched up napkin at her friend. “Firstly, it will work. I’ll make it work. And secondly, no,” she replied, not bothering to elaborate on her last point. 

“Have you been out playing the field though? I mean, you’re single, gorgeous, and you need to show Cameron how much better you’re doing without him too,” she added slyly, a grin playing on her lips. Maeve had always disliked Savannah’s ex-boyfriend - she had always prided herself in her ability to read people accurately. She’d known from the get-go that he was going to break Sav’s heart and when he finally did, she’d had to repress her urge to hunt the guy down. 

“Ugh, you don’t even have to worry about Cameron. Completely surprised me, if I’m being honest,” Savannah shrugged. “I thought it would take a lot longer than it did for me to get over him.” 

“That’s good,” Maeve said excitedly, finishing off her sandwich and brushing off the crumbs. “I always told you I never liked him, didn’t I?” 

“You did,” Savannah smiled, “I should’ve listened to you.”

“Ah,” Maeve leaned back, brushing off her words. “You had to find out for yourself. And I’m glad that you did - you’re already stronger from the experience.” 

At this, Sav couldn’t help but smile. As messy as the breakup had been, she was glad that she’d come out of it a lot stronger than before. Maeve had always been the voice of reason and guidance for her. Wise beyond her 26 years, Savannah found that going to her for advice always resulted in a completely new perspective on any difficult topic that she encountered and she was glad that of all the people she met in life, she’d crossed paths with Maeve.

“Thank you,” she said honestly, smiling at her friend before finishing up the rest of her food.

“How are you guys getting home?” Christian asked, walking back into the front room a few moments later. He’d changed out of his work clothes into something more casual, tugging a bag onto his back as he carefully ran his eyes over the cafe once more to make sure everything was intact. It still surprised Sav how much he seemed to like the little cafe her mum owned.

“Dunno,” Maeve shrugged, grinning over at him.

“I can give you guys a lift if you’d like?” he offered, sounding a little unsure of himself as he glanced from Sav to Maeve and back again. “I mean, it’s my mum’s van and the backseat smells a little because of my brother’s soccer uniform, but it does the job,” he blabbered.

“You had me at ride,” Maeve nodded eagerly. “Anything’s better than taking the bus,” she scowled. “It always smells like dog. And don’t get me wrong, I love dogs as much as the next person but seriously, come on.”

Christian laughed lightly before nodding at her in agreement. “Sav?” he offered, jingling his keys in midair.

“Thanks, Christian,” she smiled kindly. “But Lex is coming to pick me up in about ten,” she checked her watch, “so we can get ready for the party tonight.”

“Ah,” he nodded easily. “Next time, then. Did you want us to wait with you until they got here?” he offered.

“Nah, it’s fine,” she waved them off. “You two get going. I need to check the register and lock up anyway.” 

“Alright,” Maeve shrugged, “don’t do anything I haven’t done,” she sing-songed, moving around to give Sav a quick hug.

“Really?” Savannah stared at her. “There’s like nothing you haven’t done.”    
  
“I know,” she winked. “And I’m all the wiser for it. You’ve said so yourself,” she defended. 

“Bye, Maeve,” Sav said pointedly, making Christian laugh from by the door. “Oh, and leave the door open would you?”

“No problem. I’ll see you on Monday?” he questioned, holding the door open for Maeve as she made her way towards him.

“Definitely,” Savannah nodded. “I’m going to talk to my mum about a possible pay-rise for you, Chris,” she teased, making him blush.

“Have fun tonight,” he said before bading her a final farewell and letting the door ding shut behind him.

It was only a few minutes later when Savannah was locking the register and doing a final quick sweep of the backroom that a banging could be heard from out front.  

_ “Oi, Sav, let us in,” _ Louis was yelling.  _ “I’m going to freeze my knob off!” _

_ “Good,” _ Savannah heard Reyna quip.  _ “That way you won’t be able to procreate.” _

_ “Nah, be honest,”  _ he drawled.  _ “My kids would be cute.” _

Reyna snorted.  _ “Your kids would be cursed. Poor lads never saw it coming - ending up with a dad like you.” _

_ “That’s no way to speak of our future children, Rey-Rey,”  _ Louis mocked.

_ “If the weather doesn’t freeze your knob, I sure as hell will hack it off for you,”  _ Reyna said in a sinister voice.

_ “Bloody hell, would you two knock it off?”  _ Alexa cut in, clearly sounding annoyed and Savannah began to wonder just how long this conversation had been going on for. If she had to have a guess, with their history, she’d assume that it was the entire car ride and possibly even beforehand.

“Hey guys,” she said with resignation was she pulled open the door for them to come through. “It was unlocked, by the way. Did you think of turning the knob?”

“Haha, knob,” Louis snickered as he made his way inside, earning himself eye rolls from all the girls.

“Grow up, you’re horrid,” Reyna scolded, her nose wrinkling at his immaturity. “Sav, are you about done yet? Party’s in about an hour and I’d suggest we get going if you want to get there before it finishes.”

“Why’s he here?” Savannah replied, nodding towards Louis who was yet again stealing another muffin from the basket on the counter. “I hope you’re going to pay for that,” she added, glaring at him as he took a bite from a chocolate chip one.

“He didn’t want to be the first one there, and seeing as Harry’s not coming, he decided to grace us with his annoying ass,” Reyna explained, crossing her arms annoyedly.

“Hey! People would kill for my company,” Louis argued. “I wonder why I keep you around sometimes.”

“You? Keep  _ me  _ around-?” Reyna started.

“- _ Okay _ , maybe we should get going?” Alexa suggested, looking pointedly towards Savannah who hurriedly grabbed her bag from behind the counter and hitched it over her shoulder.

“Better get out of here before they  _ really  _ go at it,” she muttered, following Alexa out the door with Reyna and Louis trailing close behind, still bickering.

“It’s not my fault you guys have a shite sense of humour,” Louis was saying as they made their way over to the car.

“So,” Savannah interrupted loudly before Reyna could respond. “Harry really can’t get out of dinner plans?”

“Nah,” Louis shook his head, easily distracted from the argument, while Reyna glared at her well aware of what she was trying to do. “Dick Styles is exactly what his name suggests, a bit of a dick.”

“His dad’s name is dick?” Reyna frowned.

“Well, it’s Richard,” Louis admitted.

“But people call him dick,” Alexa concluded.

“Actually, no one calls him dick,” he grinned sheepishly, polishing off the muffin and throwing the wrapper at Reyna who punched him in the arm.  

“I give up,” Savannah sighed, settling into the passenger seat as she tried to ignore the arguing coming from the backseat.

“We all do,” Alexa agreed.

-

“Look at the way his eyes keep flickering around the room,” Louis said gleefully, watching his friend manoeuvre his way through a conversation with the very girl he’d been avoiding for months now.

“Looking for an escape?” Alexa guessed, taking a lazy sip of the non-alcoholic drink she had in her hand. Unlike the rest of them she wasn’t drinking tonight, unwilling to risk a hangover when she had work the next day and lecture notes she was already behind on.  

“Definitely looking for an escape,” Zayn sidled up to them, having caught the last part of their conversation.

“He’s been dodging Emily’s advances for months now,” Zayn’s roommate - Niall - cut in, a drink in each hand. Savannah quirked a brow, wondering if they were both for him.

“Poor guy looks like he’s in pain,” Alexa observed, tilting her head as though she was observing a painting.

“Maybe someone should help put him out of his misery?” Reyna suggested, looking from Zayn to Harry and finally resting on Sav.

“What?” she narrowed her eyes, realisation dawning on her as Reyna continued to stare pointedly at her before flicking her gaze over to Harry. “No way!” she protested. “I barely even know him. Besides, it’s Zayn’s party.”

Zayn merely shook his head. “Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t even invite her. You can blame Louis for that,” he backed away from them carefully. “Besides, I’ve got to go around and check nothing’s missing,” he sighed. “Someone always steals something.”

“I’ll help,” Alexa piped up. “Make sure no one breaks anything,” she rushed out, cheeks tingeing a little red when everyone stared at her.

“Oh,” Niall frowned, eyes lighting up sheepishly as he followed them. “About that…” his voice trailed off as the three of them weaved their way through small groups of people who were already gathered and chatting over drinks.

Savannah turned her glare onto Louis. “Why did you invite her?” she demanded.

“She heard me talking about it and it would’ve been rude if I’d told her not to come,” he shrugged. “Plus Harry said he wasn’t going to show up so I thought it was safe.”

“You’re a complete buffoon,” Reyna shook her head. “Go save the poor guy, Sav. He looks ready to rip his hair out.”

“Is that sympathy I detect?” Louis jeered at her. 

“Shut up,” she scowled at him. “We both know how stressful family dinners can be, poor bloke didn’t even have a chance to change. Look at him, he’s still got a bloody tie around his neck. Go pretend to be his girlfriend or something before he turns it into a noose.”

“Ok, ok,” Savannah rolled her eyes. “I get it. I’ll go save him. Be his knight in shining armour,” she grinned at the thought, walking over towards where Harry was playing with the tie around his neck.

“You should grow out your hair,” Emily was saying as she reached over to play with a strand of Harry’s hair.

“There you are,” Savannah interrupted, grabbing Harry and practically dragging him away, leaving Emily standing with her hand fluttering awkwardly in midair. “I’ve been looking for you  _ everywhere,” _ she said in a falsely cheerful voice.

“Uhh,” Harry frowned, allowing her to drag him away. “Did I miss something?” he asked once they’d reached Reyna and Louis, who were stood watching amusedly.

“You’re welcome,” Savannah scoffed, thinking they were in the clear only to have Louis choke on his drink as someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Excuse me,” the girl she’d just pulled Harry away from spoke, glaring at Savannah, “but we were in the middle of a conversation.”

Savannah glanced over at Harry who looked nervously between the two, his hand once again moving to fiddle with the tie around his neck - it annoyed her more than it should have. “Stop that,” she scolded him, swatting his hands away, completely aware that she was sounding like a controlling girlfriend.

“Sorry,” Harry muttered, feeling too scatter-brained to argue.

“Why don’t you just take it off?” Reyna cut in, completely ignoring Emily’s presence.

“Yeah,” Louis agreed. “You’d look a lot less like a twat that way,” he said seriously.

“Thanks for that guys,” he glared at the two of them, before pulling his tie apart and unbuttoning the first few buttons of his shirt.

“What are you doing?” Savannah demanded, sounding frustrated.

“Trying to look less like a twat,” he deadpanned.

“Ahem,” Emily interrupted, four sets of eyes falling once again onto her. She turned to look at Harry. “Can we go somewhere more private?” she fluttered her eyes up at him.

Harry opened and closed his mouth, unsure of how to gently turn the girl away without sounding like a complete dickhead.

“Great fish impression,” Reyna said coyly, taking a sip of her drink while she watched Harry with amusement as he struggled to form a coherent sentence.

“Oh, bloody hell. Look, I’m sure you’re super nice,” Savannah began, stepping in front of Harry. “But Harry isn’t interested. He’s just escaped from some super stuffy family dinner and all he really wants to do is get drunk and forget his own name.”

Emily rolled her eyes, trying to step around Savannah only to have her way blocked with every attempt. Finally she gave up. “No offense but, who are you?” she demanded, sounding thoroughly frustrated.

Savannah glanced behind her, noting the panic on Harry’s face and the expectant, eager looks on Louis and Reyna’s. “I’m his girlfriend,” she muttered, not looking away from her friends as their eyes lit up gleefully and twin smiles formed on their lips. “So, please leave,” she turned back to Emily, patting Harry awkwardly on the back as he choked on his own tongue.

“I - what?” Emily spluttered, looking from Harry to Savannah.

“We’re dating,” she enunciated. “What don’t you understand?”

“You never told me you were seeing someone,” Emily said to Harry, looking fairly upset.

“Uh,” Harry stuttered, looking at a loss. “Yes?”

“God forbid he ever has to defend anyone in a criminal trial,” Savannah heard Reyna mumble from behind her. She turned around to glare at her friend only to find a phone pointed directly at her. “Remind me not to hire him. For anything. Ever.”

“Dammit, Rey,” Sav grumbled, holding her hand up to hide her face, no matter how useless she knew it was. “I need a drink.”

“Maybe Harry can get you one,” Louis said slyly. “Looks like he’s in need of one himself, anyway,” he nodded over at his struggling friend.

“I can get drinks,” Harry nodded eagerly, feeling slightly guilty at the sight of a forlorn-looking Emily.

“Go with him, Sav,” Reyna bossed her, looking at her best friend roll her eyes.

“Bu - fine,” Sav said, deciding it would be best not to argue.

“C’mon, Em,” Louis wrapped an arm around the girl who’d once again been ignored. “Let’s go find you someone to dance with,” he said leading her away from the others.

“Hey, what about me?” Reyna demanded, chasing after them and leaving Harry and Savannah alone.

“Well-”

“I need a drink,” Harry cut Savannah off. “Sorry,” he apologised immediately, following the glare she shot him.

“A little gratitude for saving your sorry ass would be nice,” she grumbled, crossing her arms and jogging a little to catch up with his long strides as he led her into the kitchen.

“I didn’t need saving,” he flicked his eyes over towards her momentarily.

“That’s not what it looked like to the rest of us. We were worried you were going to end up strangling yourself with your tie at some point.”

“And what if I was actually interested in Emily?” he pulled out a couple of beers from a hidden compartment in Zayn’s fridge. “It’s where he keeps the good stuff,” he explained.

“If you’re so interested, I’m sure Louis can bring her back,” she challenged, accepting the drink he handed her. “I’ll go find him for you,” she turned to head back where they’d come from, only to have Harry grab her elbow and hold her back.

“Ok, ok,” he conceded. “Maybe I needed some help. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said smugly.

“Although,” he grinned after a couple of seconds. “Louis didn’t tell you Emily was quite the blabbermouth, did he? Now everyone’s going to think we’re dating,” he flickered her nose mockingly.

“Wait, what?”

“So what should I call you?” he mused. “We’re going to need couple names, you know,” he said pointedly.

“I don’t do couple names,” she monotoned back at him.

“Sav is too common, everyone calls you that - we need something just for the two of us,” he leaned back onto the counter, crossing his legs at his ankles as he stared at her in contemplation.

“Stop staring at me like that,” she glared at him.

“Like what?”  

“Like you’re trying to read my mind,” she folded her arms across her chest as though it would protect her from his piercing gaze.

It was silent for about half a minute, the only sounds that could be heard was the buzz of the party going on around them. Savannah began to fiddle nervously with the necklace around her neck, causing Harry’s eyes to zero in on the Disney pendant.

His eyes lit up after a few ticks of the clock. “I’ve got it,” he exclaimed.

“What?” 

“Your nickname. It’s Simba,” he declared proudly.

“I don’t think so,” Savannah scowled at him.

“But it’s perfect!” he tried to argue. “Just hear me out-”

“No,” she cut him off, turning to walk away.

“This isn’t over, Simba!” Harry yelled after her, choosing not to follow.

Savannah flicked him the bird before disappearing into the crowd.

-

“Hey, uh, Zayn?” a tap on Zayn’s shoulder halted their conversation, interrupting him mid-sentence. Savannah glanced at the boy, nervously gesturing behind herself. “I think someone’s throwing up in the bathroom.”

“Ah, fuck,” Zayn swore, before excusing himself and rushing down the hall. Savannah watched him leave before turning back to the guy he’d been chatting with who was now staring unashamedly back at her.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” she replied skeptically, studying him as his eyes washed over her.

“What’s your name?” he asked before taking a sip of his drink, gaze still firmly latched onto her.

“Savannah,” she replied carefully, still wary. “And yours?”

“Sean,” he smirked. “Wanna dance?” he gestured behind him, toward a group of people who’d turned Zayn’s living room into a makeshift dancefloor.

“Not right now, I don’t think so. Thanks for the offer though!” she said sweetly, catching Reyna’s eye from across the room where she leant against makeshift bar counter, talking to Louis and some friends. She watched them warily, silently asking if Savannah needed help.

With a slight shake of her head, she turned back towards Sean who was still looking at her expectantly. Suddenly, Savannah felt a lightbulb go off in her head and began searching the room, hoping the person she wanted to see hadn’t given up and gone home. Her eyes found said person sat on the couch, playing with her drink while trying to avoid touching the couple who was making out beside her.

“But I can think of someone who will,” she grinned, grabbing Sean’s arm and pulling him along with her. They skidded to a stop in front of Emily, who looked up at them with an expression of both confusion and apprehension upon recognising Savannah.

“What do you guys want?” she asked, eyes darting between Savannah and Sean and the hold Savannah still had on him.

“Hey Emily. It is Emily, right? Anyway,” Savannah began cheerfully. “Seeing as you were so desperate for a dance partner before, I’ve taken it upon myself to find you one!”

“What?”

“Meet Sean. Sean, this is Emily. She just  _ loves _ to dance. Have fun you two!” Savannah darted off, leaving Sean sputtering while Emily’s glare deepened.

In the mood for another drink, she made her way to the kitchen where she began searching around for a clean cup. She began rummaging in Zayn’s cupboards for a glass when one was shoved in front of her face. She followed the hand to find herself face to face with Harry once again.

“Here,” he mumbled, “You’re not going to find anything breakable in this kitchen. Zayn’s hidden it all in his bedroom cupboard.”

Savannah lifted an eyebrow before taking the drink. “You know, they say to never accept a drink from strangers.”

“Good thing I’m not one then,” he smiled, clinking their cups together before taking a sip of his. Savannah followed suit, and had almost successfully downed half the cup before she found herself shoved into Harry who caught her before she lost her footing.

“Bloody hell, Louis!” Alexa sighed, pulling Louis to the side where he couldn’t cause any more damage. “You could’ve broken her face.”

“Oh please,” Louis brushed it off, “It was barely a nudge. Look, she’s fine isn’t she?”

“Oh yeah, just peachy,” Savannah said sarcastically, her cheeks tinged pink as she brushed herself off while Harry had silently gone back to sipping on his drink.

“Besides, Reyna and Zayn could doctor her right back up,” he insisted, ignoring Savannah’s jab.

“Anyway Sav, I was just about to head off,” Alexa explained. “Reyna said she needs to look after this one,” she nodded towards Louis who grinned, “so she’ll probably get home later, but I was just wondering if you needed a lift?”

“Yeah I’ll come,” Savannah replied, finishing off the rest of her drink and nodding at Harry. “Thanks for that, Styles. I’ll see you at uni.”

“See you later, Simba,” he said innocently, grin widening as he noted the scowl on her face.

“What was that?” Alexa asked curiously once they were out of earshot.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Savannah said resignedly as they went to find Zayn to say goodbye.

-

“Whoa, what happened to this place?” Alexa asked, pulling her sunnies from her face and dropping her keys on the table by the door. Savannah appeared behind her, waving hello at Zayn before surveying the mess in front of them with disgust. “Did you guys  _ sleep  _ in this?” Alexa continued, wrinkling her nose.  

“Hope you guys have a cleaning crew booked because this needs some serious elbow grease,” she joked, eyes resting on the disheveled forms of Louis and Niall passed out on the couch, arms wrapped securely around one another.

“Yeah, they’re booked in for about tomorrow night. Earliest we could get them,” Zayn shrugged, hopping on a stool and thankfully accepting the cup of tea Reyna passed him.

“I was, uh… joking,” Savannah trailed off, internally shaking her head at the fact that he would actually hire someone to do the cleaning. But then again, this was probably how the other half lived everyday.

“Tomorrow night?” Alexa blanched, picking up a stray cup that had fallen over and studying the stain it had left on the polished wood. “I don’t think you can survive that long.”

“Don’t think I have any choice,” Zayn said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. “I’m scared I’ll wreck the floors if I try and get that out myself.”

“Look, we’ll help,” Savannah piped up decidedly, still by the door. “Where are your rubbish bags?”

“Underneath the sink. Why? What’s happening?” he replied curiously, watching as Savannah started rummaging in his cupboards for the cleaning supplies.

“Oh, no,” Reyna mumbled dejectedly from beside him, causing his eyes to focus on her for a moment before Savannah was calling his attention once again.

“Do you have any Dettol?” she asked, lining up everything on the counter as everyone watched her, wide-eyed.

“You know how to clean?” Zayn asked, the surprise evident on his face as Savannah started stacking cups in order to make more room for her army of cleaning products. For someone who had obviously never cleaned up after a party in his life, Zayn sure did have a lot of sprays in his cupboard.

“I’m very domesticated, if I do say so myself,” Savannah replied smugly, grabbing the roll of garbage bags out and unrolling one. “Here, start organising.”

“Uhh, what is going on here?” Harry piped up from the entrance to the hallway, dressed in a pair of trackpants, still towelling excess water from his hair.

“Savannah’s gone mad,” Reyna replied seriously, eyes darting to her friend cautiously. “She wants us to  _ clean. _ ”

“Oh good! You’re up!” she chirped, handing Harry a black rubbish bag.  “Here, take a bag and start cleaning. Whatever wasn’t here 24 hours ago goes in that bag,” she explained slowly.

“Don’t bother arguing, she’s sporting the crazy eyes,” Alexa groaned from beside the door, earning a chuckle from Zayn as he watched on amusedly.

“Oi! You two! Wake up! We have lots to do,” Savannah sing-songed across the room at Louis and Niall who groaned loudly before squinting up at her.

“What are you on about?” Louis replied grudgingly, trying to shield the light that was pouring in from the windows beside him. “Bloody hell, could you keep it down? Some of us are still hungover.”

“Aye,” Niall agreed weakly slowly untangling himself from Louis and sitting up on the other end of the couch.

“Well, drink some water because we’ve got a bit of cleaning to do,” she countered happily, crossing the room dropping a plastic bag on each of them.

“Why did you let her in?” Louis complained loudly at Zayn who just smirked knowingly. “I can’t believe  _ your _ poor choices in life affect my sleep now too.”

“It was the only way I could avoid having to peel you off my couch before noon,” he replied. “I’d listen to her if I were you, though. She looks scary.”

“She looks like she could burst into song at any moment,” Harry observed, still in the same position as before, except this time he was holding a plastic bag.  

“Please don’t give her any ideas,” Alexa said quickly, accepting the bag that Savannah offered her.

“Don’t be a sour puss,” Reyna scoffed. “What song should we sing, Sav? I was thinking  _ We’re All In This Together.” _

“No,” Louis all but yelled. “If you sing another High School Musical song around me, so help me god-”

“I don’t see any of you guys cleaning,” Savannah cut him off, glaring at each of them as she began throwing cups into the bag that she was holding. “The faster we all do our job, the quicker we’ll get everything done. That’s what my mum always told me,” she said proudly.

“Yeah, it’s also just common fucking sense,” Louis deadpanned from his position on the couch, still obviously annoyed that he was woken up from his sleep.

“Shut it,” Sav quipped. “Now get up and help us, you bum.”

Three and a half hours later, the group found themselves collapsed on the floor of Zayn’s living room, their surroundings spotless save for the pile of rubbish bags by the front door.  

“I’m so hungry,” Louis whined, cradling his stomach while Niall nodded in agreement. “I can’t believe you made us do that.”

“You’re a monster, Sav,” Niall agreed, looking pointedly towards her.

Savannah only grinned, gesturing around them. “How good does this place look, though? I’m so proud.”

Everyone glared at her.

“ _ Okay _ then,” she said, pulling off her gloves. “Who’s up for lunch?”

“Ooh and a movie!” Reyna spoke up from her position on the couch.

“Lunch and a movie it is,” Zayn decided before an argument broke out. Savannah silently thanked him for it, considering the last time they’d tried to make plans, it had taken them about an hour to decide what to do.

“Ok, I’m game. But I’m going to need to go home and shower first,” Reyna piped up, wrinkling her nose as she glanced down at her grimy clothes.

“Deal,” Harry said, getting up to collect his stuff. “Meet in half an hour?”

“You’re funny,” Reyna deadpanned, gesturing to her hair. “An hour at least.”

“An hour then,” he agreed, finding his keys before grabbing Louis and heading towards the door. “See you guys soon.”

They all watched them leave silently, too tired to really comprehend what had just happened.

“Well,” Zayn spoke up, eyes sweeping around his spotless house. “Guess I better cancel the cleaners then.”

-

“No, you hold the popcorn, I’ve got both the drinks in my hands!”

“Ouch Louis! You just stepped on my foot, you idiot. Watch where you’re bloody going!”

“Well if your feet weren’t the size of the entire walkway, I wouldn’t have felt inclined to step on them. Also, it’s fucking dark!”

“Oi! Shut the hell up you twats, we’re trying to watch a movie here!” someone a few rows above them yelled.

“See? Now you’ve done it. Got the whole cinema yelling at us now,” Reyna hissed, tempted to try and trip him as he made his way past her.  

“Well if your ass didn’t get so restless halfway through, we wouldn’t be having this problem, now would we?” he hissed back at her.

“I didn’t get restless, I got hungry,” she corrected him.

“Oh my god, can they please shut up,” Savannah murmured from her seat on the other end of the row. “They’ll get us all kicked out in a second.”

From beside her, Alexa laughed. “Well, this was your plan to begin with so I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”

“It’s not like I picked the movie,” she whispered back. “I wanted to watch whatever rom com was showing. But  _ no _ , Reyna and Zayn just had to insist we watch some superhero film. Besides, I said lunch, Reyna suggested the movie!”

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Zayn agreed, “We should just leave now - spare us the shame of having to leave when the lights are on.”

“Or, we can just kick the two of them out,” Harry suggested from Sav’s other side, his eyes fixed on the screen where Deadpool was discussing his KFC-spork hand. The whole cinema seemed to erupt in laughter, but the people surrounding Savannah were making too much of a racket for her to concentrate on the movie.

“And risk a bloodbath? That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had, and that’s saying something considering you almost killed us on the way here,” she countered, digging into her popcorn.

“Hey! That loser cut me off, it wasn’t my fault!” he argued, leaning up from his seat to face her.

“If you weren’t doing something illegal, it mightn’t have happened,” Savannah shrugged.

“I have to agree with that,” Zayn piped up from Alexa’s other side. “You were the idiot in that situation.”

“Alright then, if you guys are so against my driving, why don’t you all catch a lift with Louis home then? See if you guys survive that journey,” Harry retorted defensively, crossing his arms and slumping back against the seat.

“Oi!” Reyna’s voice called to them from the other end of the row. “We’re trying to watch a movie here, keep the volume down would you!”

From beside her, Louis snorted. “We already saw this last week when it first came out. You literally made me cancel my shift so we could see a midnight screening.”

“What the hell, Rey?” Savannah glared. “Why are we watching it again if you’ve already seen it?” she demanded.

“Why not?” Reyna shrugged.

“If we get arrested, I’m blaming you,” Harry whisper-shouted towards Savannah. Reyna stuck up her finger at him, thinking his comment was directed towards her. “Oi! I wasn’t even talking about you.”

“That was rude, Rey,” Savannah felt inclined to agree with Harry.

“When we get out of this hellhole, I’m kicking both your asses,” she replied back to them before turning away and directing her focus towards the screen.

From beside her, Louis let out a loud laugh, “Ha ha, you’re both getting your asses kicked.”

“I’ll kick you ass too,” she glared at Louis.

“Oi!” someone called out from a couple of rows in front of them. “Shut up or I’m calling security!”

It was just over an hour later when the film finished and Savannah was more than ready to get out of there, only to have Harry pull her back down. “What?” she glared, anxious to get out of the cinema and away from the dirty looks people were throwing at her.

“There’s an end scene,” he whispered, tugging her arm until she’d sat back down. 

“Don’t tell me you’ve already seen it, too,” she narrowed her eyes at him.

“I haven’t,” he shook his head. “But all Marvel films have end scenes,” he shrugged, turning back to the screen.

“I can’t believe you guys made me stay back to watch that thirty second clip of nothing,” she glared at Harry as they finally made their way out.

“If I hadn’t, someone else would have,” he shrugged completely unperturbed.

Savannah huffed and folded her arms across her chest as she followed him to his car, making Harry laugh.

“You can’t fool us, Sav,” Alexa nudged her. “You enjoyed the movie.”

“Yeah, what I saw of it,” she scoffed. “I’m honestly surprised we weren’t thrown out. I’m never going to the cinema with you lot ever again.”

“How are you going to get there on your own?” Alexa quirked an eyebrow. “You know, since you don’t have a car... or drive for that matter.”

“I’ll take the bus.”

“Wait, you can’t drive?” Harry demanded, unlocking the car.

“How do you get around?” Zayn asked, settling into the passenger seat beside Harry.

“She makes me drive her,” Alexa rolled her eyes.

“Hey, sometimes I walk or take public transport,” she pouted. 

“Yeah, like once a week.” 

“We need to teach you how to drive,” Harry mused, reversing and waiting for Louis to cruise up behind them before they left the parking lot.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Lex muttered. “Rey and I tried to teach her plenty of times.”

“So  _ anyway, _ ” Sav interrupted. “Where are we going now?”

“Dunno,” Harry shrugged. “Home probably.”

“Good. I have an lectures to work on and work later this evening,” Alexa nodded approvingly.

“The semester’s barely started,” Harry said, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

“And I’m determined not to fall behind.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Savannah mumbled as she texted away on her phone.

“Coming from the girl who has all her notes colour coded,” Alexa snorted from beside her.

“Oi, it helps me remember!”

“Or it could just be your OCD peaking,” Lex retorted.

“Man, I wish I was that organised,” Zayn sighed from the front seat, shooting a disapproving look at Harry as he drove over a roundabout.

“We’re going to die,” Savannah muttered, all thoughts of flying out her head as she looked up to watch Harry drive.

-


	5. watermelon granita

“Oh no,” Savannah slumped, spotting Louis and Reyna chatting together by Louis’ car, identical cups of coffee in their hands.

“Crap,” Alexa sighed, hitching her bag higher on her shoulder and biting her lip. Reyna and Louis’ heads snapped up as they approached, a broad smile stretching across Louis’ face.

“Need a lift?” Louis asked once they were close enough, dangling his car keys before them.

“Uh, sure?” Alexa replied, a little confused. Savannah just stood there, squinting over at Reyna as if she was trying to decipher a particularly difficult maths equation.

“Lou’s offered us a ride to uni,” Reyna shrugged, raising an eyebrow at Savannah’s blatant staring. “It’s a peace offering for ruining the movie yesterday,” she explained, narrowing her eyes a little at Louis, who was still grinning like a fool.

“Sure is. Now, chop-chop,” he clapped his hands together. “Don’t wanna be late now do we?”

“Ha!” Reyna scoffed, watching as Louis pulled open the passenger side door for her to climb in. “You’ve never been on time to anything education-related,” she said, moving past him.

“Not true!” he defended, racing over to the driver’s side. “I was usually on time for football games!”

“That’s not exactly education-related,” Savannah piped up, buckling her seatbelt and placing her bag between herself and Lex. 

“Plus, you were late to those half the time,” Alexa joined in.

“I thought this was a peace offering,” Louis grumbled, pulling his car out onto the street. “Not a ‘let’s attack Louis’ freefest.”

“You brought this upon yourself,” Reyna shrugged, pulling out her phone. “What class do you guys have this morning?” she asked Savannah and Alexa, twisting a little to face them.

“I’ve got Brain and Behaviour,” Savannah grumbled. “Our lecturer talks at about the speed of light so taking notes is impossible. Plus, there’s someone who sits behind me who eats the _noisiest_ food, I feel like he does it on purpose.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got Menzies first thing,” Reyna sighed. “If you guys don’t hear from me after that class, it’s safe to say that he’s locked me in the morgue to join the other bodies there.”

“I don’t have class until noon,” Alexa grinned cheerfully.

“I hate you,” Savannah glared at her.

“Yeah but you have a seven hour Renaissance art class later on in the week, so really, who’s the real winner here?” Reyna shot back, high-fiving Savannah as Lex slumped down in her seat.  

“I have a marketing class first thing,” Louis chirped with false cheer. “Not that anyone _asked_ me,” he said, rolling his eyes and chancing a glance at the three of them. “It’s like I’m only good for giving you guys lifts to places and being made fun of.”

“That’s not true, Lou. You’ve also got a pretty sick apartment.”

“You know, if we weren’t already here, I’d throw you out of my car and make you walk the rest of the way,” he shook his head even as a smile fought its way onto his face - he was very proud of his apartment.

“Liar,” Savannah sing-songed as she crawled through the car and out Alexa’s door. She had a thing where, if her passenger side door faced the road, she would crawl over and exit the car through the opposite side.

Neither Louis, Alexa nor Reyna even blinked at her, but a couple students who were passing by sent them some weird looks.

“I can’t believe I’ve come all this way for a class that finishes at eleven. I’ve only got a lecture today and it’s more of an intro to the topic than an actual class. Apparently all we’re doing today is partnering up for some assignment,” Savannah rolled her eyes.

“My condolences to the poor soul who ends up being your partner,” Alexa joked.

“Hey, I’m not that bad!”

“Yeah, ok. Not like you basically traumatised the last girl you were partnered with by literally turning up at her doorstep at 2am one night with an ‘idea you just couldn’t wait to share with her’,” Reyna laughed.

“It was a good idea,” Sav grumbled, hitching her bag higher up on her shoulder as they four of them made their way towards their respective classes. “Why do we have to park so far away?”

“Because, finding parking on campus is near impossible,” Louis explained.

“It’s true,” Alexa nodded. “Side streets are your best bet. Usually I just drop Sav off and find a place to park so I can escape her whining about why we have to walk for ten minutes.”

“I don’t whine.”

“No, just a healthy level of complaining,” Reyna laughed.

“I like to think so,” Sav grinned brightly. “Is that Harry?” she frowned, leaning forward to try and get a better look at the figure heading towards them.

“Looks it,” Louis shrugged. “Oi! Haz,” he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth for maximal volume.

“Warn us next time you’re gonna yell,” Reyna growled, thumping him on the back harshly.

“Ow, sorry,” Louis apologised sheepishly as Harry hurried his way towards them.

“Morning,” he yawned.

“Long night?” Reyna asked.

“Dad wanted to go over some old cases with me,” he nodded. “Wanted to prepare me for some of the classes I’ll be taking.”

“Sucks,” Reyna made a face. “I’m so glad I didn’t follow the family business. There’s not really much investment bankers can teach me about the cardiovascular system.”

“Yeah, but you’re studying  _medicine_  now, so obviously they’re not going to be disappointed in you,” Harry scoffed.

“True,” Reyna grinned. “Maybe you should’ve done medicine too,” she nudged Harry as they continued walking towards their classes.

“Dad probably would have disowned me.”

“But you literally just said parents wouldn’t be disappointed if you do medicine.”

“No, I said  _your_  parents wouldn’t be disappointed in  _you_. I didn’t say anything about  _my_  parents,” he joked, although Savannah could tell there was a slight truth to his words.

“So,  _anyway_ ,” Louis interrupted the two of them. “You’re coming to football practice today right, Harry?” he asked. “Reyna’s said she’ll come for moral support.”

“Stop putting words in my mouth,” Reyna cut in. “I said I might come if I’m not busy.”

“Are you busy?” Louis asked.

“Depends what Sav and Lex are up to.”

“Sav?” Louis looked at her pointedly.

“Probably nothing,” she shrugged.

“Good, then you guys can tag along too,” he nodded decidedly. “See you guys tonight,” he dragged Harry away before Reyna could argue.

“Great,” she muttered. “Come on, Sav.”

“Uh, actually, I’m heading in their direction,” she said apologetically, hurrying to catch up with the boys. “Wait up!” she yelled.

-

“You will be expected to attend  _all_  lectures and tutorials within this course. Failure to do so may result in your tutor refusing to acknowledge your final assignment. Now, the first part of this assignment is due back in week four of this semester, and so you will be expected to choose your partners this week to be able to get started on it as soon as possible. Please, choose wisely. No changes will be permitted once the names are written down and my free time is very limited. I’d rather not spend it listening to you bicker about who did what.”

Savannah sighed while her lecturer, a short, plump woman with wispy, grey hair droned on about the importance of the first assignment for the term. The lecture had been forty five minutes of absolute torture and if she had to listen to another minute of this speech, Savannah was sure she was going internally combust… somehow.

It was taking everything she had not to fall asleep and Savannah found herself regretting the decision to skip out on the coffee Alexa had offered to get her before class. Especially when the brown haired boy beside her was sipping leisurely at the cup of coffee sitting on his desk. Every time he picked it up and put it down, the smell would waft over towards her, making her even more grumpier than she already was.

“Remember, this assignment is worth an overall 50% of your final grade so failing _is not an option_.”

“Just like this class,” Savannah murmured, dropping her head onto her palm as she chewed on the pen she’d found buried in her bag. She had almost drifted off to sleep when a quiet chuckle made her jump.

“Tired?” an amused voice asked from her left. Savannah turned towards the Coffee Boy, narrowing her eyes a little at him.

“What could possibly give you that idea?” she asked sarcastically. “Was it the fact that I was half asleep?” So she wasn’t the most friendly person when she was hungry and tired, sue her. But Coffee Boy didn’t seem to mind, grinning at her as he downed the rest of his coffee while she eyed him enviously.

“I’m Dylan,” he whispered, glancing towards the front of the room where their lecturer was now going over the assignment’s marking criteria.

“Savannah.”

“Nice to meet you, Savannah,” Dylan smiled merrily before the two of them lapsed into silence as the lecturer - Savannah didn’t even know her name if she was being honest - finally stopped talking for more than a couple of seconds as a student asked a question.  

“ _Someone I know took this unit last year,_ ” a girl sitting towards the front spoke. “ _He said we had to partner up boy-girl. Is that true?_ ”

“Yes,” their lecturer nodded her affirmation. “I was just getting to that part. As part of this unit, it’s come to the faculty’s understanding that the there is a difference in the physiology of the way the brain works as well as a difference in behaviour between the two genders. And through this assignment we are hoping that this difference will be made prevalent.”

“Bloody fantastic,” Savannah grumbled, scribbling down a few notes as the lecturer made them.

“Not a fan of partnered work?” Dylan asked curiously.

“It’s not that,” she looked over at him thoughtfully. “Just don’t know any of the guys in this class is all.”

“You know me,” he grinned and Savannah saw that as her opening.   
  
“Is that your way of asking me if I wanna partner up?” she raised an eyebrow at him. Dylan shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I mean, yeah,” he muttered. “You don’t know anyone and I don’t know anyone. Makes sense we’d partner up, yeah?”

“You better do your share of the coursework,” she tried to glare at him fiercely, but from the small smile on Dylan’s face, it only amused him. After a quick glance at his notes - which were about two pages longer than hers - Savannah felt herself perk up at the prospect of spending the rest of the semester with someone who actually seemed like he cared about his work. She’d promised herself that she was going to try her best this semester, and partnering up with this Dylan guy seemed like a step in the right direction.

After the lecture, the two stood around exchanging details before they parted. As she walked away, Savannah spotted Harry sitting by himself on one of the couches, his head buried between the thickest book she had ever seen, brows furrowed in concentration. Knowing better than to distract him, Savannah walked on, feeling slightly sorry for Harry Styles.

-

“Louis, you owe me about three cheeseburgers for dragging me out here to this godforsaken place to watch you guys kick a football around while not actually scoring any goals,” Reyna grumbled, taking a seat on the bench as Louis swapped his trainers for some cleats.

“Come on Rey, just bask in the gloriousness that is English football. Doesn’t it feel incredible?” Louis said, lacing up his shoes and moving to stand up.

“No,” she grumbled in reply. “It feels like a wet patch on my bum and a field that smells like garbage.”

“You’re such a buzzkill,” he sighed, saluting the three girls before running off to join Harry and Niall on the field. They were a part of the university football team, and were spending the evening getting ready for the first game of the season coming up. If Savannah had known that she was going to be spending the next two hours on a damp seat, she probably wouldn’t have been so okay about going.

Savannah and Alexa sat there silently, trying to follow what was happening with their practice. They started off with laps around the field followed by a couple of drills. By the time they started with their actual practice, Savannah was ready to fall asleep on Alexa’s shoulder. Reyna hadn’t even bothered looking up from her phone since it started, and was now playing Solitaire to kill time.

“Aren’t you supposed to be paying attention to this?” Alexa asked her, effectively pausing her game. “I mean, you’re the reason why we’re here in the first place.”

“Oh please,  _Louis_ ’ the reason you guys are here. I was forced against my will,” she grumbled, tapping the start button on her game.

“How’s it going, guys?” a new voice sounded, Zayn appearing a few seconds later and taking a seat beside Alexa. “Has anyone tripped yet?”

“Niall landed on his bum about fifteen minutes ago. Kept whining about how he’s probably bruised his tailbone. Personally, I don’t think he’s really cut out to play this game,” Savannah commented, waving a hello at Zayn.

“Sounds like him,” he agreed, nodding his head as he watched the match.

“Why aren’t you playing?” Reyna asked, locking her phone and joining in on the conversation.

“Ah, I did for about two seasons but then my workload at uni kept getting in the way so I had to quit,” he shrugged in reply, not seeming entirely bothered by it. “Good riddance, I’d say. I barely managed to score a goal.”

“Oi! Zayn! Give us a bottle of water!” Harry yelled from across the field. Savannah looked up to find the group slowly making their way back to the benches.

“Get it yourself you muppet, I’m not your bloody waterboy,” Zayn yelled back, but went to retrieve a bottle of water from the cooler anyway. He threw it towards Harry once they were within close range - which he caught deftly - and reached back in to grab another one for Louis and Niall.

“How’d you guys find it?” Niall asked, moving to take a seat between Savannah and Reyna before gulping down half the water bottle in one breath.

“Uh,” Savannah began, watching wide eyed as he downed the rest of the bottle within the next two seconds. They were set to get back out there within the next five minutes and she briefly wondered whether he was worried about getting a stitch or not.

“It was good,” Reyna cut in quickly, not wanting to drag this conversation out for any longer than necessary. She really wasn’t much of a sports fan.

“Come off it,” Louis interjected, opting to take a seat on the grass instead of finding room on the bench. “You were on your phone this entire time, I’m pretty sure you didn’t even glance up once.”

“I did too!” she argued.

“Oh yeah? Which side of the field did we have to shoot a goal in?” he challenged, smirking.

“Left,” she replied coolly, holding his gaze as a means to say that she was not backing down from his challenge.

“Ok, you got that one,” he said. “But I’ll be quizzing you when this is over so you better be paying attention.”

A whistle blew from the distance and all the guys hurriedly got up to return to the field, but not before Louis gave Reyna a look to show that he wasn’t going to forget about their conversation.

“Ok Sav, Lex, keep your eyes peeled,” she commanded them once they were out of earshot. “There’s no chance I’m losing to this.”

Savannah sighed, leaning her head against Alexa as she concentrated on the game in front of her. Five minutes later, she found herself being shaken awake by a glaring Reyna. The sky had darkened considerably and the boys were all gathering their things surrounding them.

“I can’t believe you fell asleep,” she scolded, arms crossed as Savannah blinked the sleep away from her eyes.

“Oh, I did?” she asked, still groggy.

“Yeah, and it cost me 10 quid too,” Reyna sighed, pulling Savannah and Alexa up from the benches. Savannah glared at the empty field, as if expecting an apology for it costing two hours of her life and her dignity.

Harry strode up to them, all sweaty and gross with his bag slung over his shoulder. “How was the nap?” he smirked, bringing a water bottle up to his lips and taking a long gulp.

“Terrible. The only way I’ll come to a practice again is if you kidnap my family and use it as blackmail. Even then I’m not sure I’ll willingly come,” she deadpanned, falling into step with Harry as they followed the others out to the car park.

“Oh lighten up, Simba. A couple of the guys have taken a fancy to you girls, by the way. Proper think we’re the coolest dudes on the team for even knowing you guys,” Harry smirked.

Savannah raised an eyebrow, “Oh really?”

“Yeah,” Harry grinned. “So you’re coming to the game next week, right?”

“Apparently, I have fans. So I’ll definitely be there to sign a few autographs if you want to give your team the heads up,” she grinned while Harry rolled his eyes.

“I’ll see you at uni, Sav,” he chuckled, squeezing her shoulder before sauntering off to his car.  

-

Savannah walked through the entrance to the library, juggling her laptop in one hand, while attempting to hide the greasy bag of hot chips she’d snuck in with her. Reyna - who was manning the front desk - rolled her eyes when she saw her creeping past, struggling to disguise the fast food by hiding it under her sweater. When she realised who was working, Savannah visibly relaxed, the stiff set of her shoulders softening as her whole demeanour changed from ‘innocent student’ to ‘tired student’.

“Thank god,” she breathed. “I feel like I’ve gone for a swim in grease,” she joked, pulling the food out from under her clothes.

Reyna only raised a brow. “You’re not allowed food in the library.”

“I thought you might say that,” she rolled her eyes. “Here.” Savannah pulled out a neatly wrapped burger and chips, placing them on the counter before taking out the bottle of Sprite she’d thrown in her bag. “Happy?”

“Very,” Reyna smiled cheerfully. “You’ve made my day.”

“I hope you realise how sad and boring that makes your life sound,” Savannah warned her.

“Piss off,” Reyna reached over the counter to punch her. “My life is plenty exciting,” she argued, retracting her arm to unwrap her burger.

“Plenty violent more like,” Savannah scowled, rubbing the spot that was now starting to turn slightly red.

“Whatever. How’s the assignment going?” Reyna asked, taking a bite of her burger chewing expectantly.

“It’s not. But Dylan will be here soon, and maybe we can finally start it. Send him over to my secret corner when he gets here will you?” Savannah asked, hitching her bag higher on her shoulder. The weight of the textbooks were now starting to really bother her, and she couldn’t wait to get to her seat.

“I hope you realise how kinky it sounds when you say it like that,” Reyna mocked, brushing some crumbs off the counter. “I hope you have the handcuffs ready.”

Savannah chose not to reply and instead walked away to eat her lunch - and possibly dinner because neither she nor Alexa cooked very often. That was maybe one of the cons of having them both living in the same space - both managed to burn water when cooking and so took to ordering in each night or eating at uni before they headed home to crash. Which meant that there was a significant dent in Savannah’s bank balance, leading her to pick up more shifts at the cafe and therefore significantly reducing her free time.

It had been a week and a half since uni had started which meant that the first part of the assignment was due in less than two weeks. Upon realising that a substantial portion of their assignment was undone, Dylan and Savannah had finally agreed to knock some sense into each other and both swapped their shifts at work in order to schedule a night to meet up.

Dylan appeared as soon as Savannah turned around, a strange expression on his face as he studied the contents of the paper box situated in front of her laptop.

“You know… there are at least 20 calories and 0.8 grams of fat in one single chip,” he chastised, glancing down at the mass of chopped potato on the table.

“Oh no,” Savannah muttered, trying to shield the box of food from his scornful gaze but to no avail.

“Meaning that of the maybe 25 to 30 chips in that box right now, you’d be consuming about five to six hundred calories alone. And don’t start me on that burger…”

“Please don’t start on the burger,” Savannah whined at him, pushing her meal to the side to try and ward off his attack.

“You could go for something so much better like carrot sticks and maybe a tuna sandwich with wholegrain next time. Great for your health and helps you study better too,” he said, pulling off his bag and sitting down next to her. Savannah rolled her eyes. She’d rather eat a burger and risk her health than eat bunny food and study better.

“I’m hearing words coming out of your mouth,” Savannah began, pulling her food back towards her - she really wasn’t going to waste a perfectly good burger. “But none of it seems to be making any sense.”

“Probably because of all those calories that you’re consuming,” Dylan scolded, eyeing the take-out with distaste.

“There you go again,” Sav rolled her eyes. “Speaking words that don’t make any sense,” she glanced down at her food, her gaze resting on the textbook she was using as a makeshift plate. “Just like the words of this assignment,” she sighed.

“Which we really need to get started on,” he nodded, seeming much more determined than Savannah was at the moment. Maybe it was all the bunny food he was consuming.

“Yeah,” she nodded sadly, taking a few final bites of her burger while Dylan unpacked.

“Ok, so for the first question…” his voice was all business as he dived right into the details of the assignment, and unsurprisingly, Savannah felt her attention instantly wane as she continued to pick at her food.

-

“Well, at least that part’s all over,” Dylan tried to reassure the both of them as they made their way out of the library together. After a gruelling four hours of research, they had mutually agreed that it was best to leave the rest of the assignment for the coming week instead of risking eating each other alive. “Besides, we’ve done all the research that we need. We just have to type it all up and I’m pretty sure we can do that over Facetime or something,” he continued.

“That’s comforting, we only have about fifteen pages to type up,” she snorted, hitching her books closer to her chest. “Anyway, it’s getting dark. I better go,” she said forlornly, glancing at the illuminated sign signifying the entrance to the tube.

“You sure we can’t give you a lift? Jess won’t mind,” he offered, eyes darting around for his girlfriend’s car.

“No. No, it’s okay. I don’t live far from the station. I’ll be fine, I don’t want to be a bother,” Savannah argued, turning to leave before he could  _really_  change her mind.

“Ok, well get home safe, ok Sav?” Dylan said weakly, spotting a car with it’s headlights on and turning towards it. “Text me when you get there!”

“I will!” she yelled over her shoulder as she power-walked towards the station. The entrance was near - she was only a few metres away from the top of the stairs. Keeping her head down, she snuggled deeper into her jumper and tried to look inconspicuous as she made her way there. The streets at night in London always freaked her out, and for good reason. She was maybe five metres away from the station entrance when a car screeched to a stop right next to her.

Savannah was more than sure she resembled a deer in headlights at that moment. She stood frozen on the side of the curb as a car faced her, two silhouettes barely discernible against the bright light. She knew that she should probably run. Or hide. Or grab a weapon of some sort - though she doubted her jelly pencil case would do much as a weapon, but she just stood there  _freaking the fuck out_  because she was an idiot and she wanted to get killed.

Suddenly, the door opened and the driver got out. He was obviously male, his face still hidden in shadows against the bright lights of the headlights piercing her eyes. The figure made a move towards her.

“Stay the hell away from me,” she warned, though her voice was barely a whisper. She took a couple of steps back, hugging her books tighter to her chest.  _Books_! Her textbooks weighed at least one stone apiece, for sure - that was a lie but they were still  _bloody heavy_.

The figure took a couple of steps forward.

“You know what,” Savannah muttered under her breath, fingers tightening around the spine of her  _Psychopathology_ textbook. “Sod it.”

And with what resembled a loud gargled shriek, she launched herself at the stranger, textbook swinging wildly into what she thought to be the side of the guy’s head. She backed up, tightened her hold once again on the heavy textbook and launched the book at him from a distance, nailing him in the face. She quickly pulled open the top flap of her satchel to grab one of the lighter books - anything to attack him again - and she almost succeeded in getting her relatively heavy workbook out (anything but the laptop) when the figure held up his arms in defeat, speaking out for the first time since he got out of the car. Or rather, the first time Savannah actually heard him. The ringing in her ears from her panic had just managed to dissipate as the noises around her became clearer.

“Stop it you psycho! What the fuck!?” the voice yelled, sounding slightly familiar.

“Harry?” Savannah asked, doing a double take as she gripped the second book in her hands.

“Yes, I’m Harry you crazy bint! Who did you think I was?!” he exclaimed, one hand covering his cheek as he stepped into the light.

“I thought you were some sleazebag who wanted to kidnap me or something! Who the hell just pulls up next to some unsuspecting girl in the middle of the night like that?!”

“Fuck, remind me to never try to do something nice again,” he muttered, pulling his hand away to see if there had been any major damage.

Suddenly, the passenger door opened, and the second figure in the car all but fell out of his seat, clutching his stomach in laughter.

“Shut the hell up, Zayn!” Harry yelled in the direction of the car, still glaring daggers at Savannah who at least looked a little remorseful.

“That was hilarious, Sav. Please do it again so I can record it,” he managed to say between gasps of laughter. “You know, your war cry was definitely the cherry on top. How does someone so small make a noise so loud?”

Savannah blushed a deep red, head hung in shame as she tried to avoid Harry’s glare. “What the hell were you guys doing here anyway?” she asked Zayn who’d managed to compose himself and was now stood next to Harry.

“We were going to give you a lift home,” he smirked as Harry fumed from beside him. “Which, uh, didn’t really go well, did it?” he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck nervously, shooting quick glances at Harry to see if he was going to get attacked anytime soon.

“No kidding,” Harry spat out. Savannah couldn’t help but laugh at the red welt appearing rapidly on his face - there was no doubt he was going to be sporting a massively bruised cheek the next day.

“Look, Harry,” Savannah started towards him but he pulled back, taking a couple of steps away from her as if she was going to attack him again. “I’m sorry!” She tried to get closer to him once again and this time, he allowed her. Tentatively, she reached up a hand to inspect his cheek in the light. It was definitely swelling rapidly - a lot faster than she thought.

Curiously, she poked it.

“Oh my god, don’t poke it!” he exclaimed, hissing in pain.

“I’m sorry!” she cried again, as Zayn doubled over in laughter once more. “Are you still ok with taking me home?” she asked, suddenly shy.

“Guess I have to now, despite the fact that you’ve just disfigured my face,” Harry sighed, pulling his hand away from his cheek once more and turning back to his car. “Come on, We’re not letting you catch the train alone at this time of night,” he said, gesturing towards the back seat.

“Is he mad at me?” Savannah asked Zayn as she picked up her fallen textbook.

“I have a hunch… considering you just nailed him in the face with a bloody book,” he chuckled. “But he’ll get over it soon. Come on, let’s get you home.”

-

“This is your place?” Zayn asked as they made the way up the stairs towards Alexa’s flat. On the car ride home, Savannah had insisted (albeit annoyingly) that Harry and Zayn come up so that she could get him some ice and some painkillers for the rapidly swelling bruise on his face and he’d grudgingly agreed.

“Yeah, I’ve just moved in with Lex,” she said, unlocking the door and letting the two boys in.

He whistled. “It’s pretty nice,” he said, admiring the cabinets laden with every movie and TV show known to man.

“Savannah? Is that you?” a voice called from down the hallway, followed by a pyjama-clad Alexa in her fluffy slippers. She stopped short when she saw who was accompanying Sav, shooting her best friend a questioning look.

“Honey, I’m home!” Savannah announced with a grin. “And, you know, these two,” she waved towards the boys.

“Hey Zayn,” Alexa greeted, trying to shield her less-than-presentable outfit from their line of sight. “Hey Har- what happened to you?”

From behind Savannah, Harry sighed.

“I hit him in the face with this,” Savannah explained weakly, holding up her textbook for Alexa to see. It was slightly battered and beaten from the events of the night, but still usable nonetheless - which Savannah was endlessly thankful for because that alone had cost her about 100 quid.

“Hold up,” Alexa interrupted. “You’re telling me that you attacked Harry?” she questioned, eyes widening as three heads nodded back in response. Harry began to look slightly smug as Lex’s face dropped, appalled. “And no one  _filmed_  it?”

This time it was Harry looking appalled. “That’s it? That’s what you’re going to ask?” he demanded, while Zayn chuckled beside him. “Piss off,” he turned his face to glare at Zayn.

“You know,” Savannah spoke softly, moving towards Harry. “I really don’t think it’s going to be all that bad?” she offered, but it came out as more of a question than anything else. Her finger was, once again, a couple centimetres away from his cheek when he reached over and gripped tightly onto her wrist, making her squeal and jump in surprise. “Sorry!”

“Oh, my god, Simba,” Harry groaned, eyes wide with disbelief. “Were you going to poke it again?”

“I just wanted to see if it still hurt as bad,” she admitted sheepishly, blushing slightly, wrist still held tightly between Harry’s slender fingers. “And don’t call me Simba.”

“I can assure you,” Harry rolled his eyes, releasing her wrist. “It does.”

Savannah bit her lip, her eyes lingering on his cheek as she unconsciously rubbed the wrist Harry had just freed. “Ok,” she said decisively. “Come with me.”

“Wha-” Harry didn’t really have a chance to respond as Savannah dragged him through the flat - almost knocking over a lamp - as they left Alexa and Zayn to awkwardly fend for themselves. “What are you doing?” Harry finally managed, once they came to a halt in front of Savannah’s rather large bathroom.

“Go in and take a seat,” she ordered. “I’ll be right back,” and without giving Harry a chance to argue, she was disappearing back to where they had come from.

-

“Hold still,” Savannah grumbled, tilting Harry’s face so that she could rub the ointment she’d found in the cabinet over his cheek. She remembered when Alexa had tripped and twisted her ankle last Christmas. They’d been out trying to find last minute gifts, when everything had gone horribly wrong. They’d gone to the emergency room where Reyna had been volunteering as part of her coursework (and even though her commitment was over, she’d stayed on because she enjoyed the experience). Reyna had sighed at the sight of them, throwing the stolen medication at them with instructions to tightly wrap the ankle and ice it afterwards.

“I just don’t understand why you’re covering my face in that gunk,” Harry pouted, once again trying to move his face away from Savannah’s fingers.

“Because,” she jerked his face back. “It will help with the swelling.”

“But it’s cold,” Harry mumbled, his pout deepening. “And it smells!”

“Don’t be such a baby,” she laughed lightly. “You’ll be thanking me for this ‘smelly gunk’,” she quoted him, “tomorrow morning when your face  _doesn’t_  feel like it’s been hit by a truck.”

“I’d be thanking you more if you hadn’t been the one to put me in this position,” he retorted.

“Potato, potahto,” she shrugged, refusing to rise to the bait. “There,” she exclaimed brightly, finally moving her hands away from his face. “All done. Now put this on,” she handed him a bag of frozen peas.

“Really?” Harry raised a brow in amusement.

Savannah tried not to blush. “We didn’t have an ice pack?” she posed it as more of a question than she’d intended, as she turned back to the sink where she’d set up her supplies.

“Of course you didn’t,” Harry chuckled before tenderly placing the bag against his cheek. “This hurts like a bitch. I expect you to be nice to me for at least a month after this, by the way.”

“I’m always nice to you,” she retorted, gathering the stuff on the counter and placing them neatly back in the bag. “It’s you who shouldn’t test me.”

“That’s no way to speak to the wounded,” he scolded, pressing the pack more firmly on his bruise. “I’m going to be sporting this bruise for a good week, at least. Going to have people ask how I got socked in the face.”

“I suppose you’ll be making up some macho story. Injury-via-textbook doesn’t sound so cool,” she replied, laughing lightly.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll tell them something wild. Like I wrestled a lion or something,” he grinned cheekily.

Savannah snorted, gathering up all the rubbish and dumping it in the bin. “Yeah, because Louis’ definitely going to believe that when he finds out about this.”

“Oh shit, Louis,” Harry’s eyes widened as he thought of his best mate and his tenacity to find things out before they even happened. He quickly pulled out his phone, determined to be the first one to tell him the story.

Savannah left Harry in the bathroom with the peas while she went to pack away the first aid kit back in the cabinet and headed out to Zayn and Alexa who were sat in the kitchen, chatting. They looked up expectantly upon hearing her come into the room.

“How’s the princess?” Zayn asked, smirking.

“Whining like a little bitch,” Savannah grinned, walking over to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water. She had to admit, she felt slightly bad for the inevitable bruise that was going to appear on his face the next day, but the situation was too funny for her not to joke about.

“What’s new, hey?” Zayn laughed, immediately cutting off as Harry entered the space. He eyed the two of them suspiciously, eyes narrowing.

“Ready to leave, Malik?” Harry asked, glancing over at Savannah who stared back questioningly.

“Oh… yeah,” Zayn mumbled, pushing off the counter and walking towards the hallway. Alexa followed him, leaving Savannah and Harry alone once again.

He took a careful step close to her. “Give me your phone,” he demanded, holding his hand out.

Eyebrows raised curiously, Savannah pulled her phone from her back pocket and placed it in Harry’s hands. After a minute, he handed it back to her as his own phone beeped from his pocket.

“You have my number now. Any time you find yourself needing a lift, give me a call, yeah? I don’t want you travelling home alone in the dark.”

To Savannah’s complete and utter surprise, Harry’s cheeks flushed a pale pink, and she couldn’t help but be flattered by the gesture.

“I’m a big girl… I can handle myself,” she retorted half-heartedly.

Harry chuckled, shaking his head slightly, “Trust me, I know,” he gestured to the mark on his face. “But just in case,” he winked.

And with that, he turned around and left the room.


End file.
